‘My heart says she is alive somewhere’: Chandramuni’s 7-year search for missing daughter in Jharkhand

After pulling up police for “unacceptable” delay in the investigation, questioning why serious efforts were initiated only after Chandramuni approached the court, the High Court Tuesday directed police to submit a detailed status report on the investigation within two weeks. The court also asked the Jharkhand government to initiate a broader policy framework on its migrant workers, using Chandramuni’s case as a reference point. The Home Secretary and Additional Director General of Police appeared virtually, with the court rejecting a plea for two months’ time to submit a policy roadmap, asking the government to do so within 30 days.

Chandramuni’s daughter, 15, “disappeared” in 2018. It was the day “I lost everything”, she says.

The mother of one more child, a son, Chandramuni blames a local “bhaktain” from the community. Bhaktains teach the young in these parts Sarna prayer traditions, with pupils often staying at their home. According to Chandramuni, after about a year of going to the bhaktain, her daughter started spending more and more time there, ignoring attempts to stop her.

Then one day the 15-year-old went to the bhaktain’s house and did not return. While Chandramuni is convinced that it was the bhaktain, now in her 60s, who caused her daughter’s disappearance, police say their investigation has not found any concrete evidence to show so.

According to Chandramuni’s lawyer Shailesh Poddar, she tried repeatedly to file an FIR, but was turned away. An FIR was registered at Gumla Police Station only on February 6, 2020, recording Chandramuni’s complaint that her 15-year-old daughter was taken away in August 2018 “on the pretext of assisting in religious work and later sold”. The case was registered under IPC Sections related to kidnapping, trafficking and wrongful confinement, along with provisions of the Bonded Labour Act and Anti-Human Trafficking Unit sections.

Chandramuni says her life revolved around the children ever since her husband, Chandra Kujur, died in Himachal Pradesh where they worked as contract labourers. Kujur fell into a pit he was digging, and Chandramuni says she received Rs 50,000 as compensation. “I performed the last rites in Himachal and returned,” she says.

It nags her that she didn’t do more to get her husband justice, says Chandramuni, and wants to ensure her daughter does not meet the same fate. She talks about the pain of not knowing whether the now 22-year-old is alive, trafficked, forced into sexual exploitation, or been “sacrificed” in a ritual. “These things still happen in our community… But my heart says she is alive somewhere.”

With police finding no answers, Chandramuni moved a habeas corpus petition in the High Court in September last year, on an activist’s advice.

A Division Bench of Justices Sujit Narayan Prasad and Arun Kumar Rai expressed strong displeasure over the manner in which the investigation had progressed, asking why a Special Investigation Team (SIT) had been constituted just when the habeas corpus petition was being filed.

“There is no explanation… by police as to why sincere efforts were not taken immediately after the FIR,” the Bench observed, asking how police could remain “so unconcerned” in a case involving a missing minor girl.

The court directed the Superintendent of Police (SP), Gumla, to explain what action had been taken against the officer-in-charge of the police station where the FIR was registered. The SP was also asked to appear before the court with the updated case diary and a detailed explanation of the investigation.

The SP, Haris Bin Zaman, informed the court that he assumed charge only in May 2025, and that the SIT he had constituted was a new one. He said that three earlier SITs had been filed in the case since 2023 but failed to find the victim, though they had recovered nine other missing children as part of their operations.

Zaman told The Indian Express: “Teams have gone to Delhi and met NGOs working on child safety. We have also visited multiple Child Welfare Committees.”

Tracing missing cases in tribal regions such as Gumla is difficult as incidents are often reported late and families frequently lack basic documents such as Aadhaar cards, mobile numbers or bank records, Zaman said. “Because of poverty, lack of education and limited awareness, families are unable to provide detailed information.”

On Chandramuni’s claims about the bhaktain, Zaman said the elderly woman had only limited mobility and there was no evidence linking her to trafficking.

During the hearings, the High Court, though, took note of broader concerns related to child kidnapping and trafficking in Jharkhand – Gumla is among the state’s worst-affected districts. The state counsel submitted that a trafficking racket had been detected and investigations were underway to uncover the larger conspiracy.

Asked about Chandramuni’s daughter’s case, an official in the Gumla police’s Anti Human Trafficking Unit said he took over only recently and had no information about what happened earlier.

Poddar says the case reflects how difficult it is for the marginalised to access legal help. “The FIR clearly mentions how long it took for Chandramuni to even lodge a complaint.”

Chandramuni, who says the village has almost ostracised her due to her claims regarding the bhaktain, owns a small plot of land where she cultivates paddy, and has four-five cows. She receives Rs 1,000 per month as widow pension and ration support, and got a new house built under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, apart from an old one.

This makes her affluent by the village’s standards. Now, with a Bharatmala highway project set to pass through her field, she expects to come into more money.

After that, Chandramuni says, she will “move away”, somewhere far.