Mosaqit Ali and his wife are looking for their 12-year-old son Asiq.
Around 66,000 children went missing in the country last year - nearly 200 every day. What do their parents encounter when they approach the police? To find out, NDTV went undercover and accompanied three families to police stations.
12-year-old Asiq Ali had gone missing while playing outside his colony on Janmashtami, August 17. His father Mosaqit Ali, a fruit seller in Delhi's Mangolpuri, has been hoping the police would find his son. But he has faced disappointment so far. When we visited Sub Inspector Gaurav Kumar, this was the interaction captured on hidden camera:
Parent: Where can we go looking for him, Sir?
Gaurav Kumar: How can I tell you where to go? Am I a magician
that I will look into a crystal ball and tell you let's go there?
NDTV: What do you think could have happened?
Gaurav Kumar: He has gone off on his own. Mostly that's the case in Mangolpuri. I know that boy is mentally disturbed. It is such boys who go off on their own.
It was not just about difficult policemen. Even where the investigating officer was putting in due effort, the search had got stuck in red tape. Avneesh Kumar's 6-year-old son Vishesh went missing in September, 2 km from Delhi's Punjabi Bagh police station. Avneesh claimed the police mismanaged his case. We visited SI Amit Kumar, the investigative officer:
Parent: Sir, our boy has been missing since September 30, you gave an ad in the paper on October 22. Has that happened before?
Amit Kumar: I had sent the letter to the Deputy Commissioner's office that very day. But they don't publish it right away. That is forwarded to the Joint Commissioner of Police and once approved, it is sent for publication. So it takes time.
NDTV: Sir, someone calling them and asking for Rs 1 lakh. It has been many days, why hasn't he been traced yet?
Amit Kumar: I have sent a request to the DCP office and that will go to nodal officers, which will be forwarded to service providers. We can't send it directly. So if the DCP is busy, or has gone on leave, we have to wait for him.
In Ghaziabad's Indergarhi, Babita is still looking for her 8-year-old son Hrithik, who went missing in January. A domestic help with two other children to take care of, she still makes the rounds of police stations. Here's how her interaction with the police went:
Babita: I met someone who said he has seen my son near a park.
Policeman: We have been to her house four times to confirm. Why don't you go if you have seen some one?