Lucknow: More than one lakh people have gone missing in Uttar Pradesh in the last two years, a staggering figure that has exposed serious gaps in the state’s policing and left thousands of families living in limbo. The gravity of the situation came under the spotlight on Thursday when the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court heard a suo motu petition on missing persons.
The court sought complete data and records from the concerned state government departments and fixed March 23 as the next date of hearing. It also directed the Additional Chief Secretary (Home) and the Director General of Police to remain present through video conferencing.
The order was passed by a division bench comprising Justice Rajan Roy and Justice A K Chaudhary.
The issue surfaced during the hearing of a missing person’s case, when it emerged that a disturbingly large number of people have disappeared across the state. Official records show that around 1,08,300 people have been reported missing in Uttar Pradesh over the past nearly two years, with formal complaints registered at police stations.
Yet, despite the scale of the crisis, the police have been able to trace only about 9,700 people so far. For the remaining families, the wait has stretched into months and years, marked by repeated visits to police stations and fading hope.
Among them is Samarjeet Chaudhary, whose six-year-old son went missing on June 30 last year. “It has been months, but the police have not been able to trace my child,” Chaudhary said. “Every day we wait, hoping someone will knock on our door with good news. Instead, we are told to come back again.”
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Stories like Chaudhary’s underline the human cost behind the statistics. Parents searching for children, elderly relatives who vanished on routine outings, and families stuck without closure have become an unspoken reality in many parts of the state.
The High Court’s intervention reflects growing concern that missing persons cases are not receiving the urgency they demand. With top officials now summoned and detailed records sought, the court is expected to closely examine what steps the state has taken, and why, despite thousands of complaints, the police remain largely clueless about the fate of over a lakh missing people in Uttar Pradesh.
