Ramanagaram cop missing since 2004, but wife complains in 2012; even colleagues goofed up.
This is as bizarre as it gets. The police department continued to transfer a constable for the past eight years despite him going missing since February 14, 2004. The shocking fact is this: neither did the missing constable Manjunath’s wife, Sujatha, file a missing person complaint in all these years, nor did senior officials in JP Nagar police (the jurisdiction in which he was last working) serve a desertion notice in spite of him not reporting to work for 21 days.
Today, let alone his whereabouts, no one even knows whether Manjunath is dead or alive.
It was only in March this year that DCP (South), Sonia Narang, was told that ‘constable number 8463’ (Manjunath) had not reported to work since 2002 as per police records, and not 2004, as per his wife Sujatha’s missing person complaint that she finally filed on March 31, 2012.
“It was on February 24, 2004, around 7 am, that he (Manjunath) left home saying he was going for duty, but he never returned,” Sujatha told DNA.
Interestingly, police records state that Manjunath had been missing since 2002. But the records also state that he was joined the service in 2002 upon the death of his father, who was himself a police constable. So if he had finished his training in 2003, how could he be missing since 2002?
Sonia Narang came to know about the case when she learnt that Manjunath, despite being “transferred” to Central police station early this year, had not reported to work for 21 days. It was then that she ordered the issuance of desertion notice to him in March — eight years and one month after he was last seen by his wife or colleagues.
The notice was sent to Manjunath’s Kotehalli residence in Ramanagaram, which was in the police records. Manjunath’s relatives, who received the notice, passed it on to Sujatha, who had moved in with her sister and brother-in-law in Kamakshipalya last year. Her relatives persuaded her to file a missing person complaint with Ramanagaram police, which she did on March 31, 2012. l Turn to p6
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