Hearing three habeas corpus petitions,the Calcutta High Court today directed the superintendent of police (SP) of four districts to appear in court for failing to file reports on missing persons. The Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Jaynarayan Patel today also criticised the police for being unable to trace girls who went missing from the Sandeshkali area in the North 24 Parganas in 2011. An NGO had lodged a complaint with the police last year that a total of 12 girls went missing from the Sundarban areas under Sandeshkhali police station. It also filed a habeas corpus petition in 2011,alleging that the police had failed to trace any of them. The police had apprised the High Court that the case was handed over to the CID,which submitted in 2011 that it was overburdened with cases of missing girls from West Bengal. The agency also said it set up two cells in the North 24 Parganas and the South 24 Parganas to trace the missing girls. The direction came after the state,which was scheduled to submit a report to High Court on missing girls,failed to do so. The Division Bench directed the SP of North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas to appear in court on August 30. Sandeshkhali borders both districts but falls in the North 24 Parganas. Mansura Bibi,a resident of Nandigram,had lodged a habeas corpus petition in 2011,alleging that the police had failed to find her husband who went missing after a clash between the Trinamool Congress and CPM workers on May 2009 in Nandigram. Two persons were killed in the clash. The police of the East Midnapore,too,did not file a report today in compliance with the high court direction passed in June. Following this,the Division Bench directed the SP of the East Midnapore district to appear in the court on August 30. In a third habeas corpus petition,Lata Rani Maity,of Sabang in West Midnapore district,claimed that a group six persons had abducted her minor daughter on Arpil 23 this year and that the police have failed to find her daughter. As no counsel from the state appeared during the hearing,the Division Bench headed by the Chief Justice directed the West Midnapore SP to appear in court on September 6.
