High Court transfers Narendrapur missing woman’s case to CID
Kolkata: With a woman missing from Narendrapur, South 24-Parganas, for over four months now, and the husband fearing she was trafficked since the accused persons are allegedly threatening him, Calcutta High Court has transferred the case to the anti-human trafficking unit (AHTU) of the CID, West Bengal while asking police to give protection to the petitioner.
The bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh was hearing the matter wherein the petitioner’s wife Archana Jha, a woman above 40 years of age, went missing from June 29, 2024 from the residential address of the petitioner (husband).
The husband allegedly learnt from local residents that two persons, Sagor Sheikh and Chandresh Kumar, who were temporarily residing in the locality, were involved in kidnapping his wife. It was alleged that no proactive action was taken by the police to recover her.
It was learnt that two persons who were arrested in the case were later released on bail since the chargesheet was not submitted on time. The state submitted a report on the case and said the woman could not be traced so far while the probe is on.
The court observed in the report of the investigating officer that he had prayed for the addition of Sections 370 and 120B of IPC. The former section deals with trafficking of people while the latter deals with criminal conspiracy.
The bench observed: “More than four months passed since initiation of probe and earlier information was sent in June 2024 at the concerned police station.
Having considered the series of consequences it may not be possible with the infrastructure available for local police station to carry forward the probe.” The case was transferred to AHTU CID, West Bengal having its office at Bhabani Bhavan.
On protection of the petitioner, the court directed that if any complaint is lodged by the petitioner the police authorities will keep a strict vigil in consonance with the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in the case of Mahender Chawla.
