All missing girls in Deogarh district rescued: Odisha police

The Deogarh police have rescued 19 missing girls within past three months from Odisha and from outside the State.

Deogarh, a tiny Odisha district, reported that all minor missing girls from the district were rescued while only a minor boy left to be detected.

The Deogarh police have rescued 19 missing girls within past three months from Odisha and from outside the State due to concerted efforts by different line departments and support from general public.

“A lot of research and hard work has gone into tracking missing persons during past three months. Phone numbers and possible locations were collected diligently and widely circulated in order to track missing persons from the district,” said Deogarh Superintendent of Police Pramod Kumar Rath.

Nineteen minor girls, four minor boys, 38 men and 162 women were found in different places, Mr. Rath informed. Deogarh police went for searching of missing persons on a mission mode.

“Most of the minor girls traced had either eloped or left homes fuming. Several of them were working as maids. Most of rescued girls were in age-group of 15 to 18,” said Deogarh SP.

The only minor missing from the district is Sibu Munda (10), who had gone missing from an orphanage last year. The Deogarh district police are suspecting that he might have left for his home near Rourkela. According to latest National Crime Bureau Record, as many as 7404 children under the age of 18 were missing from Odisha by 2021.  Of 7404 children, 6399 were girls while 1005 were boys. In 2021, as many as 4133 children including 3656 girls had gone missing from the State.

Deogarh police said field level police personnel had been oriented to tackle cases of missing minors on priority basis and improve their intelligence gathering mechanism.