Mangalore: Cases of Missing Girls Remain Mystery as Two More Disappear

Daijiworld Media Network – Puttur/Mangalore (SP)

Puttur/Mangalore, Dec 12: Cases of missing girls are being reported from the region regularly. Some are later found, having married boys of their choice, while in some other cases, the police find that they have been murdered. There are several other cases in which the fate of girls has remained unknown for long. This worrying phenomenon has created a sense of fear and tension among families, particularly rural households.

Complaints were filed by the parents of Sharada alias Mangalya (17) and Lakshmi Nayak (19) in Mangalore, that the two, who left for their respective colleges together on Friday December 9, have not come back. Searches conducted in the homes of the family’s friends and relatives could not give any clues about their sudden disappearance.

Geeta Kumari

Vishwanath, father of Sharada, in his complaint, said that his daughter, a first year PU student of Besant College for Women here, was wearing golden ear rings, bracelet, chain, and pendant when she left home for college. Her height is 5’2”, she is of wheatish complexion, with thin body build and round face, he has explained.

Lakshmi Nayak, a second year BA student of Gokarnanatha College, is five feet in height, has black complexion with medium build. She was wearing churidar, and wore gold chain around her neck, and ring in her finger, her father, Maruti G Nayak, said.

Both are residents of Kampu Compound in G T Road, Kudroli. Bunder police, who have registered the missing case, have launched search operation.

On December 7 this year, cases of two missing girls was registered in Kadaba police station. In the case of Geeta Kumari, daughter of Hukrappa Gowda from Kadambalike in Nettanige Mudnoor village near Kadaba, the girl had disappeared overnight about two years back. The police have failed to crack the case. Even after the girl’s father filed habeas corpus petition in the state High Court, her disappearance has continued to remain a mystery. The police have said they have failed to trace the whereabouts of the girl.

The fate of Rekha from Tota in Nelyady, who suddenly vanished from her home last month, was different. Her body was recovered in forests later, and the police have concluded that she was gang-raped by a person who had illicit relationship with her, and his friends, before killing her. This case too would have been assigned to the file of mysterious cases of unnatural deaths, but for the fact that her brother had petitioned the district superintendent of police, urging him to take personal interest in the investigation.

About two years back, when over 20 missing girls were found to have been slain by serial killer, Mohan Kumar, the entire district had gaped in utter dismay and disbelief.  If the investigators had taken a little more interest in time, the killer would have been behind the bars long back, and several innocent girls would have continued to live amongst us now. The cases of missing girls have not seen a decline even after Mohan Kumar was arrested.

Some believe that this is the handiwork of a racket of drug traffickers, although this notion is not substantiated by evidence so far. The investigators should take cue from the fact that unemployed girls from poor families are the ones who disappear into thin air all of a sudden, never to be seen again. Are they being lured by the racket by enticing them with lucrative offers of becoming rich within a short period? Are they being dragged into prostitution racket? Do they fall prey for the drama of love enacted by vested interests? No one knows for sure as to how many more families have to suffer the agony and ignominy of such disappearances, before these cases are cracked.