The Ghaziabad Police recovered 52 missing individuals, including 29 women and 9 minors, during a special campaign conducted between September 15 and October 13, officers aware of the development said on Monday. The district-wide drive was aimed at strengthening public safety and improving the efficiency of missing persons investigations, they added.
Assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Saloni Agrawal, from the Ghaziabad Police Women Safety unit, said no arrests were made, as most cases involved family members who had either gone missing or left home voluntarily. Agarwal added that each case required a different approach.
“Every case was different. For instance, in one case, a missing girl had run away from home to avoid getting married. Counseling was required for the families to facilitate the reunion of the members,” she said.
According to officials, the police employed multiple resources such as CCTV footage, mobile tracking, and social media monitoring, supported by beat policing and local intelligence, to trace the missing individuals.
One of the highlighted recoveries was that of a 16-year-old boy from the Masuri area who had gone missing on September 10, officers said. Police said an FIR was registered and a search was launched. On September 18, a clue obtained from an unidentified phone number helped trace his location to Mumbai. A police team travelled to the city, recovered the boy on September 20, and reunited him with his family, they added.
Meanwhile, the Gautam Buddh Nagar Police also reported a successful recovery. In a statement, they said they had located a 14-year-old visually impaired boy who had been missing for two years. The boy, who had lost his way home, had been living in an ashram. He was safely handed over to his family on October 13, officers said.