WOMEN GO MISSING FROM MAHILA THANA
By Aparna Singh

August 3, 2004 - (Times of India) A question resounding in the minds of concerned activists is the rising incidence of women going missing from Mahila Thana, Hazratganj. Activists allege that ironically women who have been handed over for safe custody to the thana have disappeared without a trace and with no accountability.

Secretary, Saajhi Duniya, Prof Roop Rekha Verma recounts the chilling tale of a beautiful Nepalese woman, Vimla Devi who was handed over to a police official, Baby Ruqaiyya by a good samaritan who found Vimla lying unconscious outside her gate.

The helpful woman, a resident of Ballu ka Atta distinctly remembers the fateful night of January 2004 when she gave shelter to Vimla and subsequently took the homeless woman to Mahila Thana. In the meantime, Vimla's husband who had come to Lucknow especially to seek psychiatric help for Vimla was desperately searching for his wife who had wandered off from the dharamshala they were staying in. He lodged a missing person' report at Aminabad police station and placed an advertisement in the paper.

Having read the advertisement, the woman contacted Vimla's husband and told him the whereabouts of Vimla. However, on contacting Mahila Thana, Baby Ruqaiyya allegedly completely denied seeing Vimla, forget taking her into custody. She claimed that the woman had fabricated the story. While the woman stood by her story she had no receipt of the handover from the thana to substantiate her claim. Finally the harried husband contacted NGO, Saajhi Duniya for help.

Meanwhile, the woman positively identified Ruqaiyya as the police official that she had handed over Vimla to. After considerable pressure from senior officials and two of the activists meeting Ruqaiyya on July 22, Ruqaiyya changed her stance saying that in fact they had taken in Vimla, but since she was mentally unstable she had run away from the station.

Prof Verma said the entire story was very suspicious and stinks of a deeper conspiracy in which women coming to the Mahila Thana were either being sold to brothels or as domestic help. "Even if this mentally unstable woman ran away from under their noses it is a case of criminal negligence. In recent times, another woman Ram Rani also disappeared from the thana and is still missing. We are demanding that a full inquiry be constituted on the working of the Mahila thana and action taken against errant officials," she said.

She said if required they would take out a demonstration as this was a serious matter wherein women who are supposed to be safe in the Mahila Thana are simply disappearing one by one.

IG, Lucknow Zone, Sulkhan Singh said the matter was under investigation and the SSP had been instructed to file an FIR if the allegations were correct. He said this was the first instance that a case of disappearance had come before him and that it would be covered from all angles.

From: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/800705.cms