Jhabbu Lal of Nithari village received Rs 2 lakh from the Mulayam Singh Yadav government today as compensation for his 10-year-old daughter Jyoti who went missing in June 2005. What he didn’t get from either the government or the police was an explanation as to why no action was taken when the National Commission for Women, barely months after his daughter went missing, had sounded the alarm.In fact, the NCW — which today served a notice on Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary and the DGP over the serial Nithari killings and the discovery of human remains — had set up an inquiry headed by member Nirmala Venkatesh and summoned the UP DGP following Lal’s complaint way back in August 2005.That inquiry had confirmed police inaction in complaints regarding missing children. “We had reported this long ago after our one-member inquiry committee submitted its report that about half a dozen girls had gone missing over two months. Families were aggrieved that in many cases not even an FIR was registered,” NCW chief Girija Vyas told The Indian Express. “The police just said they were taking action and then nothing happened.We sent them a reminder in November 2005, too, but there was no communication with them.”Vyas said that the NCW team found three things common in all cases: “All the children went missing from Nithari, eyewitnesses saw a car in the neighbourhood, its driver asking directions late in the evening, and all these children were from poor or lower middle-class families.”“We sensed some kind of a racket in this and we wanted stern action,” said Vyas. “Today, we have once again shot off a letter to the DGP UP and also to the Chief Secretary asking them to respond.” State government officials deny inaction. Said Principal Secretary (Home) Satish Agrawal: “If NCW wrote a letter, what’s new in it? Everyone knew that children had gone missing.” Asked specifically about the NCW’s complaint of inaction, he said: “So what has the NCW done? We have worked out the case. Let them write what they have to.” Chief Secretary N C Bajpai said that a team comprising Home Secretary Arun Sinha and Additional DG (Law and Order) A C Sharma had reached the village to probe why “the police remained inactive for so many days.” The team will submit its report in three days, he said.
