The Allahabad High Court has strongly criticized the Uttar Pradesh Police for their failure to make any progress in tracing a missing 21-year-old youth from Varanasi. The Court was hearing a Criminal Miscellaneous Writ Petition (No. 11694 of 2025) filed by Nitesh Kumar, who alleged that his brother had gone missing since March 31, 2025, after being reportedly abducted.
While expressing serious concern over the inaction, a division bench of Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Harvir Singh remarked during the June 12, 2025 hearing that:
"It is rather disgusting to note that after the team was constituted on 07.06.2025 till today no progress has been reported by the police."
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Despite a court order on June 4, 2025, directing the formation of a special police team to recover the missing person, no tangible results were shown by the time of the latest hearing. The Varanasi Police Commissioner had informed the bench that there was still no development regarding the whereabouts of the youth.
The bench firmly directed Uttar Pradesh DGP Rajeev Krishna to get acquainted with the entire matter and file a personal affidavit explaining the ongoing failure in recovering the abductee. The next hearing is scheduled for July 9, 2025.
"On that date the Director General of Police, Uttar Pradesh would, after getting acquainted with the facts of the case, file an affidavit," the Court ordered.
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Earlier, on June 4, another bench comprising Justice J.J. Munir and Justice Anil Kumar-X had also voiced deep concern over a pattern of police apathy in cases involving missing persons. The judges noted that this was not the first such case that day.
"The police are carving out a larger than life image for themselves shielding themselves from receiving and attending to public grievances," they stated.
According to the FIR, the victim had gone missing on March 31, 2025, and a formal complaint was registered on April 3, 2025. The Court emphasized that such delays and lack of accountability often lead to tragic outcomes.
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"If, in consequence of an abductee not being traced out in good time, the victim is killed, the responsibility, prima facie, has to be fixed upon the head of the police under whose jurisdiction the report was made," observed the June 4 order.
The High Court criticized the police for their repeated inaction and warned that such indifference can transform abduction cases into fatal incidents. The case has drawn serious attention due to the sustained lack of urgency by the police, despite judicial orders.
This ongoing matter continues to highlight serious flaws in police response mechanisms and underlines the judiciary’s effort to enforce accountability among law enforcement authorities.
Case Title: Nitesh Kumar Informant vs. State Of U.P. And 3 Others
