HC wants to know State’s stand on anti-child trafficking units
The Hindu
The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has sought to know whether the State government is willing to label units like the Anti-Child Trafficking Units (ACTU) as police stations by vesting them with investigating power to deal with child missing cases, particularly girl child missing cases.
The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has sought to know whether the State government is willing to label units like Anti-Child Trafficking Units (ACTU) as police stations by vesting them with investigating power to deal with child missing cases, particularly girl child missing cases.
A Division Bench of Justices R. Suresh Kumar and K.K. Ramakrishnan also sought to know whether the State was ready to provide more resources like personnel to these units. The court demanded a status report from the Home Department and adjourned the hearing in the case till June 13.
The court observed that 43 ACTUs were established as sub-units of Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs) in districts, but they had not been conferred the power of investigation because they had not been declared police stations. The units, with a manpower of only five personnel each, would not be able to cope with the magnitude of investigation to be undertaken, the court observed.
Even though these AHTUs and ACTUs were established in the State, the ACTUs did not have the investigating power. If at all they had to function, they should function only as an Assisting Unit either to the AHTUs or the regular police stations, which alone were empowered to investigate child missing cases, including the child trafficking cases, the court observed.
If this was the case, the very purpose of constituting special units like the ACTUs would get defeated. If a police team was formed without having the power of investigation, then the main purpose of forming such team would get defeated.
Therefore, in order to give such power of investigation to the special units, they should be declared police stations within the meaning of the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Cr.P.C.), the court observed.
While residents are worried over deaths due to diarrhoea in Vijayawada, officials still grapple to find the root cause. Contaminated drinking water supplied by VMC officials is the reason, insist people in the affected areas, but officials insist that efforts are on to identify the disease and that those with symptoms other than diarrhoea too are visiting the health camps.