The Delhi High Court has directed the Delhi Police to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to locate and produce a 12-year-old missing girl after her parents filed a plea saying they feared their daughter was in illegal custody or had been trafficked to someone in India or abroad.

After hearing the matter, a division bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Mini Pushkarna on March 23 directed, “…we consider it appropriate to transfer the investigation regarding the disappearance of…the 12-year-old daughter of the petitioner to the anti-human trafficking unit (crime branch) to be supervised by the DCP concerned”.

The court further directed the DCP concerned to set up an SIT to “locate, recover and produce the missing child before this court expeditiously and preferably within a period of one week from today” and listed the matter on April 5.

According to the plea, the missing girl’s parents used to live in Nepal. They have claimed that they used to live in a woman’s home which was frequently visited by her sister-in-law. The plea alleges that the sister-in-law asked the minor girl’s mother to send her daughter with her to Delhi, convincing the family in view of their daughter’s “proper upbringing and studies”.

As per the plea, the girl went missing from her caretaker’s home in August last year. The plea further alleges that the sister-in-law’s husband had filed a complaint with Delhi Police where he made theft allegations against the minor girl.

The plea claims that they fear that either their daughter has been illegally detained by the caretakers or has been a victim of trafficking. Pointing out that the Delhi Police conducted multiple searches, the plea further asks to see if this is an “isolated incident or a racket” in Delhi.