SC comes to aid of Haryana widow searching for missing daughter

The Supreme Court has come to the rescue of a Haryana-based widow who is running from pillar to post to know the status and whereabouts of her 20-year-old daughter, an MBBS aspirant who was allegedly kidnapped from a coaching centre at Kota in Rajasthan in July 2016.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud sought responses and status reports from the ministry of home affairs (MHA) and Haryana and Rajasthan police on the plea of the woman who submitted that she had moved to a Rajasthan trial court, the high court and police of both states without any success.

Omi Hooda, in her habeas corpus (requiring authorities to bring the person) petition filed through lawyer Pardeep Gupta, sought a direction to the MHA, the CBI, and Haryana and Rajasthan police to find out her daughter, missing from the evening of July 16, 2016.

Fearing the worst, the widow, alternatively demanded that if her daughter is no more then her body be searched and given to her for the last rites.

The woman has also made a man named Himanshu and his parents Ritesh Birla and Bala, residents of Rohtak in Haryana, as parties to the petition alleging that it was they who kidnapped her daughter.

She said that two FIRs for offence of kidnapping were lodged by her at Kota and Rohtak respectively, but no concrete probe has been conducted so far.