A PIL has been filed in the Bombay High Court urging Maharashtra police to locate around 100,000 women missing from 2019 to 2021. The petition, filed by Sahaji Jagtap, a former soldier whose daughter disappeared and later converted and married, highlights the urgent need for action on this issue.
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MUMBAI: A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been lodged in the Bombay High Court, demanding that the Maharashtra police locate approximately one lakh women who vanished from the state between 2019 and 2021. This alarming situation has drawn public attention, leading to calls for stringent measures to address the issue.
The PIL was initiated by Sahaji Jagtap, a 49-year-old former soldier from Sangli, currently employed in the government treasury department. Jagtap’s own daughter, a third-year Bachelor of Science student, disappeared in December 2021.
Despite filing a report with the Sanjay Nagar police station in Sangli, the authorities were unable to trace her. Jagtap later discovered that his daughter had converted to Islam and married a man. He recounted his experience in the plea, stating that he was able to meet her for only two minutes and remains unaware of the circumstances that led her to sever all ties with the family.
Jagtap emphasized-
“Since my daughter reached adulthood, the police have taken no action to return her home.”
He acknowledged his daughter’s right to live her life as she sees fit but highlighted the severe trauma his family endured during the search for her.
While seeking his daughter, Jagtap came across data from the Ministry of Home Affairs, revealing a disturbing trend: a significant number of women above the age of 18 in Maharashtra have remained untraced for years. According to the data, 35,990 women went missing in 2019, 30,089 in 2020, and 34,763 in 2021.
Filed through Advocate Manjiri Parasnis, the plea criticizes the lackadaisical approach of the authorities towards the disappearance of women.
“The issue of women’s disappearances is not treated with the seriousness it warrants.”
-the plea alleges.
It also references a Supreme Court order from 2002, which issued directives on this matter. Despite these directives, the plea argues that the authorities’ approach remains “very casual and careless.”
The PIL requests the court to ensure that the authorities — specifically the Director General of Police and the Maharashtra Department of Women and Child Welfare — fulfill their statutory duties to locate the missing women. It calls for the establishment of an effective mechanism to address this critical issue aggressively and positively. Additionally, the plea seeks continuous court monitoring of the investigation to ensure accountability and progress.
The case is scheduled to be heard on July 30 before the bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Amit Borkar. This hearing is anticipated to be a crucial step towards addressing the grave issue of missing women in Maharashtra.
