'Unfortunate, situation gone from bad to worse,' SC on missing children

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday said "situation seems to have gone from bad to worse", as it sought to know from the Delhi Police the steps taken to arrest an accused behind a child trafficking racket in the national capital.

A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan made the observation while interacting with a Delhi Police inspector entrusted with the probe in a case over the trafficking of several newborns in the Dwarka area.

The court said it is unfortunate that the parents of the infants seem to have sold off their own children. "The situation seems to have gone from bad to worse," the bench said, while taking a serious view of the alleged involvement of parents in the trafficking of infants.

Delhi Police was represented by Additional Solicitor General Archana Pathak Dave.

Voicing concern on trafficked children, the bench said, "You never know where these children will land up. In the case of a girl child, you know where she lands…".

The bench made it clear to the Delhi Police that it would have to find these missing children at any cost and arrest the kingpin.

The court fixed the matter for further hearing after four weeks.

The bench asked the police officer to inform it about the steps taken in the case and also directed the police to take all necessary steps to arrest gang leader Puja and three missing infants.

On April 15, the apex court had delivered a significant judgement on the issue of inter-state child trafficking rackets in another case. The apex court had then cancelled the bail granted to 13 accused in that case.

The court had then issued a set of guidelines for all the States to prevent child trafficking and offences arising out of it, saying that any laxity in implementing the directions would be taken seriously and be treated as contempt of court.