A missing person is someone who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and fate are unknown. A person may go missing through voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found, or various other reasons. These persons are generally reported as missing persons to the police.
As per the present data, Himachal Pradesh has 18,577 missing persons since 2010, (upto 30-09-2021). Out of these, 17,059 persons have so far been traced and the remaining 1416 persons are still untraced. Overall percentage of traced persons in HP is 91.83%, which is quite satisfactory.
Two special drives were launched in the months of September and October, 2021 and a total of 635 missing persons were traced out. After the remarkable achievement of these search campaigns, the H.P. Police decided to launch such search drives twice a year in the State under the supervision of the State CID.
During these special drives a total of 635 missing persons were traced out (Female Child-62, Male Child-19, Female adult-368 and Male adult=186).
The Crime branch of CID has analyzed the reasons for missing persons in the State as under :
Love Affairs/Marriage purpose-303, Family Stress-150, Due to immaturity=3, Mental illness-56, Death=13, Miscommunication=41, Financial Liabilities=2 and other reasons-67 out of a total of 635.
During the analysis it was found that places from where missing persons were traced are as under:
Paramour’s House-224, Relatives’ House-70, Friends’ House 20, Dead bodies-13, Working in Factory/Shops-80, Self return=172 and other places=56
