Court directed police to speed up the probe and try to trace the man in 10 days. (Representational)
A man has approached the Madras High Court seeking to trace his 74-year old father who went missing from a government hospital here after testing positive for COVID-19 a month ago.
When the plea came up for hearing on Wednesday, the police claimed they were not getting any cooperation from the city corporation authorities who had taken the elderly man from his residence here to a screening centre first and then to hospital.
In view of the submission by police, a bench headed by Justice N Kirubakaran impleaded the Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner as a party respondent to the habeas corpus petition, filed to seek a direction to the police to produce persons reported missing or in illegal detention.
The court also directed the police to speed up the probe and try to trace the man in ten days and posted the hearing to July 24.
According to the petitioner, his father went missing on June 15 from the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) where he was brought from a COVID screening centre for further treatment for COVID-19.
He submitted that his father was taken by a corporation sanitary inspector to the Ekkattuthangal screening centre and later informed that he had been shifted to Kilpauk Medical College Government Hospital in Chennai.
However, after a few days, his son found out that his father was never hospitalised there.
On enquiries, it was found that on June 15 he was taken to the RGGGH. However, he went missing from there and had not been traced yet, the petitioner submitted.