'Anti-Human Trafficking Unit should be looking for Tarun'

Posters of Tarun cover the car that his father Vinod Kumar Gupta travelled to MP and back in

With the national lockdown being lifted earlier this week, 16-year-old autistic teenager Tarun Gupta's father Vinod Kumar Gupta once again embarked on an off-road journey on Tuesday, to search for his son who has been missing since October 1.

But, Vinod returned empty-handed on Friday, wondering why his son's case has not yet been assigned to the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit yet - even though it's been close to 270 days (nine months) since Tarun went missing.

At 6.30 am on Tuesday, Vinod, along with three of his friends, left from Mumbai and drove nearly 2,500 kilometres on the national highway for three days to and from Madhya Pradesh. During their journey, they stopped at more than 250 off-road dhabas and stuck numerous 'Missing Persons' posters - as well as at the entrance of nearby villages - in the hope that someone would have spotted Tarun and would be able to point them in the right direction.

Tarun's father putting up a poster at one of the road stops

Speaking with mid-day, Vinod said, "I knew in my head that the only place that we hadn't thoroughly checked was the highway. For all of three days (Tuesday-Friday), we checked the entire span of the national highway between here and Jhansi, including all the dhabas, petrol pumps, and even peripheral villages. We could not enter most of the villages because of the lockdown and hence stuck the posters near the entrance of the villages."

"As per the norm, if a missing person's case is not solved within 120 days by the local police, the case is handed over to the Anti-Human trafficking unit - which has a great record in solving such cases," he said. "Tarun's case has not been transferred yet. I have tweeted to the commissioner of police, the DGP, as well as to home minister Anil Deshmukh. I think the case should be handed over by the local police authorities because the Mumbai police department is busy with COVID-19 duty, which is completely understandable."

Vinod also said that he is trying to take the help of a few NGOs to see how swiftly the case can be transferred.

2.5k
Distance in km Vinod Gupta travelled in three days

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