Supreme Court comes to aid of widow searching for missing daughter

The Supreme Court has come to the rescue of a Haryana-based widow who is running from pillar to post to know the status and whereabouts of her 20-year-old daughter.

Her daughter, an MBBS aspirant, was purportedly kidnapped from a coaching centre at Kota in Rajasthan in July 2016.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud sought responses and status reports from the ministry of home affairs (MHA) and Haryana and Rajasthan police on the plea of the woman who submitted that she had moved to a Rajasthan trial court, the high court and police of both states without any success.

Omi Hooda, in her habeas corpus (requiring authorities to bring the person) petition filed through lawyer Pardeep Gupta, sought a direction to the MHA, the CBI, and Haryana and Rajasthan police to find the whereabouts of her daughter, missing from the evening of July 16, 2016.

Fearing the worst, the widow, alternatively demanded that if her daughter is no more then her body be searched and given to her for the last rites.

The woman has also made a man named Himanshu and his parents Ritesh Birla and Bala, residents of Rohtak in Haryana, as parties to the petition stating that it was they who kidnapped her daughter.

She said that two FIRs for an offence of kidnapping were lodged by her at Kota and Rohtak respectively, but no concrete probe has been conducted so far.

Later, the habeas corpus petition was filed in the Rajasthan High Court which asked the mother to move the lower court with the grievance, the plea in the top court said.

So far no effective probe has been conducted despite a case being pending in the lower court, the petition said, adding that representations were also made to the Prime Minister and the chief ministers of Haryana and Rajasthan.

Seeking enforcement of the fundamental right to life, the woman said that left with no choice, she moved the top court.