A public interest litigation has been filed in the High Court claiming that around one lakh women have gone missing in the state between 2019 and 2021. Also, the petitioner has also demanded that the police should be ordered to set up an effective mechanism to trace these women.
Shahaji Jagtap, an ex-soldier from Sangli, who works in the treasury department of the government, has filed this public interest litigation. Jagtap's daughter went missing in December 2021 while studying in the third year of science. Jagtap lodged a complaint about the disappearance of the girl at the Sanjay Nagar police station in Sangli. However, the police have not been able to trace their daughter. While searching for the girl, they got information that she converted to Islam and got married. Her family only met the girl for two minutes. However, Jagtap has also stated in the petition that he does not know where she is till today and why she severed the ties with her family.
As the girl is an adult, the police are not making any effort to bring her home. They also learn that the girl wants to live her life the way she wants. But Jagtap has also claimed in the petition that his family has suffered a lot in the past few years while searching for her and the family is facing hardship. Meanwhile, during this period we got the information released by the Ministry of Home Affairs. Accordingly, women above the age of 18 have not been found in the state for years. According to the statistics, 35,990 women in 2019, 30,089 in 2020 and 34,763 women in 2021 have been reported missing and have not yet been traced, the petitioner said in the petition.
The petitioner, through advocate Manjiri Parasnis, has alleged that the disappearance of women is not being taken seriously. The Supreme Court had passed some orders on the issue in 2002, but even then the attitude of the authorities towards the issue was very careless and negligent, the petitioner claimed.
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