Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru/Udupi

Mangaluru/Udupi, May 4: More than 324 women from Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts have gone missing since the last 15 months, police sources say.

In the last four-and-a-half years, more than 679 cases of missing women have been reported from both the districts out of which many of them have been found. In Dakshina Kannada district, there are 35 cases of missing women while there are 10 cases in Udupi who are yet to be found.

The reasons for them to have gone missing as identified by police and counsellors include love affairs, family fights, lures of employment and mental instability.

It is said that most of the missing cases have been reported during the corona pandemic times in 2020 and 2021. In 2020 and 2021, 293 women had gone missing in Dakshina Kannada while 164 of them had gone from Udupi district.

For the period January to April, 2022, 26 missing cases have been reported by Dakshina Kannada district police while there are 13 cases reported in Mangaluru Police Commissioner limits. For January to April 10, 32 missing cases have been reported from Udupi.

Under the Mangaluru Police Commissioner limits from January 2019 to February 25, 2022, 147 women who had gone missing were unmarried out of which 145 of them have been found. Most of the 97 of the women who have been found are married, police sources said.