Continued from page 01 THE Nehru Nagar cops, however, had uploaded her details a month later on the Mumbai police website. Centralised data and proper coordination could have helped them crack the case in no time but that did not happen. Even as how Aartiu2019s case was probed over the past one year comes to the fore, it becomes clear that if the officers had followed the standard operating procedure ( SOP), then her fatheru2019s life could have at least been saved.
Time and again, the Nehru Nagar cops have said that they tried their best to locate the girl but the fact that they never came across the details of the girl put up by the GRP on Maharashtra policeu2019s website of Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and System the same day her body was found on tracks, shows that they did not follow proper procedure. The cops have also claimed that the information was not circulated by the GRP. The GRP confirmed to mid- day that the accidental death report ( ADR) was shared with all the nearby police stations, including Nehru Nagar, on the day Aartiu2019s body was recovered.
The details were also shared on Mumbai and Railway policeu2019s common WhatsApp group. Speaking to mid- day, DCP M Makandar of Central Railway GRP, said, u201c The details were shared with the police station concerned on the very same day. We donu2019t see any negligence.u201d Requesting anonymity, a senior GRP officer said, u201c When an unclaimed body is found, we immediately share the ADR with all the nearby police stations. We also check the details of the missing person with police stations based on the location from where it has been recovered. If we find any connection of a missing person with the body then we immediately inform the police station concerned. In this case, the officer who had found the body checked missing personu2019s complaints of nearby police stations on the Mumbai police website but didnu2019t find any match.u201d Another goof- up that has come to the fore is that the Nehru Nagar police uploaded Aartiu2019s details on the Mumbai police website only on April 25, 2019, almost a month after the GRP recovered her body.
Confirming this, senior PI, Vilas Shinde, said, u201c We registered the kidnapping case on April 25 last year and hence the website has the same date.u201d Retired IPS officer, P K Jain, said, u201c This is something very basic. The SOP needs to be followed in missing cases.
The investigating officer must generate a message for all police stations about the missing person and also check information regarding missing cases on the websites. This also shows that missing cases are not taken seriously. Senior officers must take action if such carelessness in the investigation is established.u201d When contacted, Aartiu2019s mother, Manju Rithadiya, said, u201c Itu2019s extremely surprising that details were available on the websites. This proves that the cops did nothing to trace my daughter. If they had checked the details properly, they could have reached out to us the same day she went missing. And even my husband would have been alive.u201d Cops never saw Aartiu2019s pic, details that GRP uploaded u2018 Now I understand why on the day we went to file a complaint, the police officer told me that they have a lot of missing cases to probe and this was not the only one. They took one month to register a case. The CP must take action against these officersu2019 Manju Rithadiya, Aartiu2019s mother
