How one Delhi policewoman risked it all to trace one missing child per day
Seema Dhaka worked obsessively to trace kidnapped and missing children despite some investigations being tough, protracted, and involving long chains of contacts across states
Delhi Police chief SN Shrivastava issued an order on August 6 last year for out-of-turn promotions for any constable or head constable, who traces at least 50 missing children aged below 14 in a year. Seema Dhaka exceeded the eligibility criteria for the promotion.
Seema Dhaka worked obsessively to trace kidnapped and missing children despite some investigations being tough, protracted, and involving long chains of contacts across states
Seema Dhaka, 34, a Delhi policewoman, had the phone number of an alleged kidnapper of a girl. She knew he lived in central Delhi’s Patel Nagar. But that was not enough to track him down. The number was registered on a fake address and the precise location of the accused remained unknown. Dhaka’s repeated calls on the number went unanswered.
She had almost given up and was planning to focus on another missing child’s case when Dhaka called the suspect one last time. The suspect’s roommate answered the call. Dhaka sensed an opportunity. She sweet-talked him into sharing his own number, which, too, was registered using the wrong address. Over the next three to four days, Dhaka persisted. She would speak to the young factory worker for hours, mostly on her way back from work at night. For a week, she pretended as if she was interested in having a relationship with him.
Dhaka lured the factory worker into giving her his address on the pretext of meeting him. Around two hours later, Dhaka rushed to the address with a police team and arrested the kidnapper, and rescued the girl.
The girl was among the 76 missing children Dhaka traced last year over 76 days between August 12 and October 26. The feat of virtually tracing a child daily helped her get an out-of-turn promotion. The exploits of Dhaka, who also contracted Covid-19 before taking up the assignment to trace missing children, have also inspired a web series that is in the pre-production stage.
Hated by some traced children
Dhaka said she worked obsessively over the 76 days. She added her colleagues would often tell her to take it easy and she had to stay away from her family for longer periods. Some of those rescued hated her for tracking them down. In some cases, her successful investigation led to the separation of underaged runaway couples. Many young men were jailed on charges of rape since physical relations with minors amount to rape even if they are consensual.
Some of the investigations were tough, protracted, and involved long chains of contacts across states. Others were unbelievably easy. “In two cases, runway children called me to urge me not to trace them,” said Dhaka. But she prevailed on them, arranged a meeting, and produced them before a Child Welfare Committee to decide the future course of action.
Better performance
Delhi Police chief SN Shrivastava issued an order on August 6 last year for out-of-turn promotions for any constable or head constable, who traces at least 50 missing children aged below 14 in a year. At least 15 of those 50 children were to be younger than eight. The criterion was set given a lot of teenagers reported missing are often those who run away from their homes.
Dhaka exceeded the eligibility criteria for the promotion. She rescued 76 children in less than one-fourth of the stipulated period. Fifty-six of them were below 14 and 16 children under eight.
In the normal course, constables become eligible for a promotion after five years in service and head constables after 10–that too if they clear a test. Otherwise, a cycle promotion takes around 10 years.
From August 6, when promotions were announced, to December 31, police traced 2,027 missing children. On average, 14 children were rescued daily. As many as 3,336 children were rescued, amounting to around nine daily in 2019.
Many of those reported missing are runaway children. But they often get caught in difficult situations and need to be rescued. Last week, for example, two head constables looking for a missing 12-year-old girl found her at a brothel in Delhi and helped bust a child kidnapping racket. The girl was also tortured.
Planned approach
Before taking up the cases of missing children, Dhaka had helped trace a child over her 15-year career. She was mostly tasked with routine policing and occasionally cases of molestation or theft. Dhaka said she was keen on taking up challenging cases. She added her desire to probe serious cases rather than the promotion motivated her. “My husband and I earn enough money to live a comfortable life. Also, I would have even otherwise been promoted in the next three-four years.”
On August 11, Dhaka headed straight to work when she heard about the commissioner’s order while she was going somewhere with her husband in their car. She knew just where to begin. “The Samaypur Badli police station [where she is posted] had scores of cases of missing children.”
She took out about 100 files of missing children gathering dust for up to seven years. Any case older than seven years is closed. The real work began the following morning. She first called the complainants and sought more details. Dhaka then focused on those files which either did not have phone numbers or the phones were unreachable. She visited the complainants individually. She worked at the police station until 3 am on the first day after taking up the cases. “My colleagues...asked me to take it easy as there was an entire year to do the work.”
Could not meet her own deadline
Dhaka would exceed her own deadline by 16 days. She said she knew the investigations were going to at the cost of the time she would spend with her eight-year-old son. “So, I decided to meet the target in 60 days.”
Dhaka made most of the time she would have spent otherwise in courts. There were fewer crimes taking place and regular policing took a backseat due to the pandemic. Moreover, her job now involved just tracing the children and handing them over to the original investigating officers, who would then deal with other procedures.
When she went to meet the parents of the missing children, she realised the potential impact of her work. She said the first mother she met fell on her feet and wept inconsolably as police were finally showing interest in tracing her daughter. In an hour, Dhaka traced the father and brother of a local man suspected of luring the 13-year-old girl for marriage. By the end of the day, the girl was reunited with her family. But the girl was angry with Dhaka for separating her from the man who was jailed for rape on August 12.
Over the next 75 days, Dhaka scoured the maze of homes in the unauthorised colonies of Samaypur Badli and neighbouring areas to look for other missing children. “In many cases, complainants were tenants who had relocated... Most of these people do not submit identity proofs to the house owners and there is no tenant verification, making it difficult for me to trace the complainants.”
Tough cases were very tough
The toughest cases were solved over several weeks even as Dhaka handled multiple missing files simultaneously. In one of the tougher cases, Dhaka had to deal with a mother, who reported the disappearance of her seven-year-old son. But the mother was hostile and uncooperative when Dhaka spoke to her and did not even share her mobile phone number. Dhaka had to follow a chain of contacts and check the customer application forms of some phone numbers before determining that the woman belonged to Bengal. Dhaka then went to Bengal; travelled by boat in flood-hit areas before finally tracing the boy.
As it turned out, the mother had first genuinely reported the disappearance of her son. But he returned home, and she did not inform the police about it. Soon, she married a man who did not want the boy to live with them. So, she sent him away to live with her family in Bengal, while the police continued believing that he remained missing.
Apart from Bengal, Dhaka travelled to Bihar, Punjab, and Haryana to look for the missing children. In many cases, she left behind photographs of the missing children and her phone number that helped her to get a tip-off about a missing eight-year-old boy. She received the tip-off past midnight at 12.30 and immediately urged her husband to accompany her. “The boy’s father was on the verge of losing his factory job because he was taking unscheduled leaves to accompany me to search for his son,” said Dhaka.
Some of the other easier cases involved minor girls, who had eloped. There were a couple of “missing” children, who called Dhaka to persuade her not to pursue their cases. “Those children would somehow get to know that I had visited their homes to trace them. Since these were runaway children, they did not want to return.”
Constable Harish, who goes by a single name, assisted Dhaka in looking for call detail records. Head constable Manoj Kumar helped her with investigations. “I have traced 39 children and there are five months to go still [to trace more to help him get a promotion too],” said Kumar.
Deputy police commissioner Rajeev Ranjan said Dhaka’s promotion means she can now use her experience and calibre to investigate crimes against women like rape and sexual harassment. “Dhaka has since been sharing her valuable experience and helping other head constables and constables track missing children.”
Seema Dhaka worked obsessively to trace kidnapped and missing children despite some investigations being tough, protracted, and involving long chains of contacts across states
Delhi Police chief SN Shrivastava issued an order on August 6 last year for out-of-turn promotions for any constable or head constable, who traces at least 50 missing children aged below 14 in a year. Seema Dhaka exceeded the eligibility criteria for the promotion.
Seema Dhaka worked obsessively to trace kidnapped and missing children despite some investigations being tough, protracted, and involving long chains of contacts across states
Seema Dhaka, 34, a Delhi policewoman, had the phone number of an alleged kidnapper of a girl. She knew he lived in central Delhi’s Patel Nagar. But that was not enough to track him down. The number was registered on a fake address and the precise location of the accused remained unknown. Dhaka’s repeated calls on the number went unanswered.
She had almost given up and was planning to focus on another missing child’s case when Dhaka called the suspect one last time. The suspect’s roommate answered the call. Dhaka sensed an opportunity. She sweet-talked him into sharing his own number, which, too, was registered using the wrong address. Over the next three to four days, Dhaka persisted. She would speak to the young factory worker for hours, mostly on her way back from work at night. For a week, she pretended as if she was interested in having a relationship with him.
Dhaka lured the factory worker into giving her his address on the pretext of meeting him. Around two hours later, Dhaka rushed to the address with a police team and arrested the kidnapper, and rescued the girl.
The girl was among the 76 missing children Dhaka traced last year over 76 days between August 12 and October 26. The feat of virtually tracing a child daily helped her get an out-of-turn promotion. The exploits of Dhaka, who also contracted Covid-19 before taking up the assignment to trace missing children, have also inspired a web series that is in the pre-production stage.
Hated by some traced children
Dhaka said she worked obsessively over the 76 days. She added her colleagues would often tell her to take it easy and she had to stay away from her family for longer periods. Some of those rescued hated her for tracking them down. In some cases, her successful investigation led to the separation of underaged runaway couples. Many young men were jailed on charges of rape since physical relations with minors amount to rape even if they are consensual.
Some of the investigations were tough, protracted, and involved long chains of contacts across states. Others were unbelievably easy. “In two cases, runway children called me to urge me not to trace them,” said Dhaka. But she prevailed on them, arranged a meeting, and produced them before a Child Welfare Committee to decide the future course of action.
Better performance
Delhi Police chief SN Shrivastava issued an order on August 6 last year for out-of-turn promotions for any constable or head constable, who traces at least 50 missing children aged below 14 in a year. At least 15 of those 50 children were to be younger than eight. The criterion was set given a lot of teenagers reported missing are often those who run away from their homes.
Dhaka exceeded the eligibility criteria for the promotion. She rescued 76 children in less than one-fourth of the stipulated period. Fifty-six of them were below 14 and 16 children under eight.
In the normal course, constables become eligible for a promotion after five years in service and head constables after 10–that too if they clear a test. Otherwise, a cycle promotion takes around 10 years.
From August 6, when promotions were announced, to December 31, police traced 2,027 missing children. On average, 14 children were rescued daily. As many as 3,336 children were rescued, amounting to around nine daily in 2019.
Many of those reported missing are runaway children. But they often get caught in difficult situations and need to be rescued. Last week, for example, two head constables looking for a missing 12-year-old girl found her at a brothel in Delhi and helped bust a child kidnapping racket. The girl was also tortured.
Planned approach
Before taking up the cases of missing children, Dhaka had helped trace a child over her 15-year career. She was mostly tasked with routine policing and occasionally cases of molestation or theft. Dhaka said she was keen on taking up challenging cases. She added her desire to probe serious cases rather than the promotion motivated her. “My husband and I earn enough money to live a comfortable life. Also, I would have even otherwise been promoted in the next three-four years.”
On August 11, Dhaka headed straight to work when she heard about the commissioner’s order while she was going somewhere with her husband in their car. She knew just where to begin. “The Samaypur Badli police station [where she is posted] had scores of cases of missing children.”
She took out about 100 files of missing children gathering dust for up to seven years. Any case older than seven years is closed. The real work began the following morning. She first called the complainants and sought more details. Dhaka then focused on those files which either did not have phone numbers or the phones were unreachable. She visited the complainants individually. She worked at the police station until 3 am on the first day after taking up the cases. “My colleagues...asked me to take it easy as there was an entire year to do the work.”
Could not meet her own deadline
Dhaka would exceed her own deadline by 16 days. She said she knew the investigations were going to at the cost of the time she would spend with her eight-year-old son. “So, I decided to meet the target in 60 days.”
Dhaka made most of the time she would have spent otherwise in courts. There were fewer crimes taking place and regular policing took a backseat due to the pandemic. Moreover, her job now involved just tracing the children and handing them over to the original investigating officers, who would then deal with other procedures.
When she went to meet the parents of the missing children, she realised the potential impact of her work. She said the first mother she met fell on her feet and wept inconsolably as police were finally showing interest in tracing her daughter. In an hour, Dhaka traced the father and brother of a local man suspected of luring the 13-year-old girl for marriage. By the end of the day, the girl was reunited with her family. But the girl was angry with Dhaka for separating her from the man who was jailed for rape on August 12.
Over the next 75 days, Dhaka scoured the maze of homes in the unauthorised colonies of Samaypur Badli and neighbouring areas to look for other missing children. “In many cases, complainants were tenants who had relocated... Most of these people do not submit identity proofs to the house owners and there is no tenant verification, making it difficult for me to trace the complainants.”
Tough cases were very tough
The toughest cases were solved over several weeks even as Dhaka handled multiple missing files simultaneously. In one of the tougher cases, Dhaka had to deal with a mother, who reported the disappearance of her seven-year-old son. But the mother was hostile and uncooperative when Dhaka spoke to her and did not even share her mobile phone number. Dhaka had to follow a chain of contacts and check the customer application forms of some phone numbers before determining that the woman belonged to Bengal. Dhaka then went to Bengal; travelled by boat in flood-hit areas before finally tracing the boy.
As it turned out, the mother had first genuinely reported the disappearance of her son. But he returned home, and she did not inform the police about it. Soon, she married a man who did not want the boy to live with them. So, she sent him away to live with her family in Bengal, while the police continued believing that he remained missing.
Apart from Bengal, Dhaka travelled to Bihar, Punjab, and Haryana to look for the missing children. In many cases, she left behind photographs of the missing children and her phone number that helped her to get a tip-off about a missing eight-year-old boy. She received the tip-off past midnight at 12.30 and immediately urged her husband to accompany her. “The boy’s father was on the verge of losing his factory job because he was taking unscheduled leaves to accompany me to search for his son,” said Dhaka.
Some of the other easier cases involved minor girls, who had eloped. There were a couple of “missing” children, who called Dhaka to persuade her not to pursue their cases. “Those children would somehow get to know that I had visited their homes to trace them. Since these were runaway children, they did not want to return.”
Constable Harish, who goes by a single name, assisted Dhaka in looking for call detail records. Head constable Manoj Kumar helped her with investigations. “I have traced 39 children and there are five months to go still [to trace more to help him get a promotion too],” said Kumar.
Deputy police commissioner Rajeev Ranjan said Dhaka’s promotion means she can now use her experience and calibre to investigate crimes against women like rape and sexual harassment. “Dhaka has since been sharing her valuable experience and helping other head constables and constables track missing children.”
