HC asks police to give status report on missing children

Patna, Feb 20 (PTI) Expressing serious concern over hundreds of children and women missing in Bihar for last five years still remained untraced, the Patna High Court today directed police to constitute a monitoring cell and furnish a status report by April 2.Terming the matter as "very serious", a division bench comprising Chief Justice J N Bhat and Justice Chandramauli Kumar Prasad directed the state government to constitute a monitoring cell headed by the IG (CID) to ensure concerted efforts for the recovery of the missing persons and furnish the action taken report by April 2.The Court also asked the state government to file reply whether or not it was in a position to set up the state child rights commission as sought by senior counsel M P Gupta contesting the case.The bench passed the order while hearing a PIL on the kidnapping of Gaurav Kumar alias Golu, a student of DAV school who was kidnapped in September 2005 but subsequently released.The court while taking suo moto cognizance of newspaper reports on Golu's kidnapping had turned it into a PIL which was heard today.A K Gupta, Inspector General of crime investigation department, submitted a report to the court that around 205 children and 587 women were missing for more than five years. PTI