Mumbai Police say minor kidnappings in city are 15 times higher than 2013

Illustration/ Ravi Jadhav

Kidnappings of minors in the city are 15 times higher than the number of cases recorded before 2013, an RTI query has revealed. Between 2013 and now, 256 boys and 298 girls have gone missing, suspected to have been abducted. These statistics were provided by the Mumbai Police in response to an RTI application filed by activist Shakeel Ahmed Shaikh.

A steep surge
Data reveals a significant rise in the kidnappings of girls - in 2013, 92 girls were kidnapped from the city out of which 79 were traced, but in 2017, the number of kidnapped girls rose to 1,368; 1,235 of these were traced. With respect to boys, in 2013, 87 had been kidnapped, and later, 52 were traced. The number surged to 889 in 2017; of these, 819 were traced, showing that the detection rate of kidnapped boys was higher as compared to that of girls.

In case of kidnappings of adults, the other data Shaikh had sought, the number has remained steady over the last five years. In 2013, 1,253 men were kidnapped, out of which 1,201 were traced, and 527 women were kidnapped, and of these, 503 were traced. In 2017, 1,378 men were kidnapped, and 928 were traced, while 607 women were kidnapped, and 424 were traced.

Shaikh said, "The rise in the number of minors kidnapped over the years is a cause for concern. If after five years, 584 girls and boys are still missing, the police need to focus harder on finding them."

Khaki version
"After an order from the Supreme Court, all missing cases of minors are registered as kidnapping. If we observe the trends, there's also minors running away from home, with the number being higher in the 12 to 18 age group. This major chunk usually gets traced, or the kids return home on their own," said Vasant Dhoble, former police officer who worked extensively in tracing kidnapped minors.

"But kids below 10 getting kidnapped from their vicinity is a cause for concern; that's where the police need to focus. Awareness, education and actual efforts coupled with technology are needed to bring the numbers down."

There's a faint silver lining though. Even as the number of kidnapping cases has risen, the rate of detection has gone up too - statistics of the last five years indicate that 90 to 95 per cent kids get traced.