Vanished lives

Hundreds of people are going missing in the State annually, leaving their dear ones depressed and puzzled, and the investigators searching for leads. While some may return, others stay unseen, never to return. Mithosh Joseph talks to friends and family members of a few such persons and investigators to get into the core of the complex issue

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A newly printed photograph of Thomas John, a 42-year-old farmer, hangs on the wall of Pazhamchirayil House, a small concrete residence at Kavumkudi, near Alakode, in Kannur district.

Simi, his wife, and their three children are yet to come to terms with the sudden loss that has befallen them. She’s yet to overcome the grief caused by the loss of her husband. The thoughts of her life partner, who went missing in November last year, only to be found dead near a river, still haunt her.

“We approached the local police station within a few hours of confirming his disappearance. As he was upset over the repayment of debt in the preceding weeks, we were worried when he just vanished,” recalls Simi, who nurses a grievance that the police refused to consider her complaint seriously. “Had the police responded quickly, he would have been among us now,” she says.

Simi complains that the police delayed the search on the reported grounds that they couldn’t track his mobile phone location. “They said the search could be launched only after waiting for at least 24 hours. Because of their indifference, we searched with the support of residents. Sadly, we found him, dead, the same day,” she wails.

The latest figures with the police confirm that the State is seeing a surge in the number of cases related to missing persons over the past five years. Official data show that cases of 8,742 missing persons were registered in 2020. It increased to 9,713 in 2021 and to 11,259 in 2022. Next year, it was 11,760 and 11,897 in 2024.

“Despite the high number of missing persons, Kerala maintains a relatively high success rate in tracing them. Timely reporting of the cases and the proactive approach of the police are making the difference,” claims a senior police officer with the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) in Kerala.

The uneven trends in the number of missing cases become clear in the district-level data compiled by the State Crime Records Bureau. In the rural areas of Thiruvananthapuram district, the number of missing cases showed an increasing trend in the past few years. The total number of cases which was 630 in 2022 almost doubled and reached 1,177 in 2023. But there was a slight fall in 2024.

The rural areas of Ernakulam district also witnessed an increasing trend from 508 in 2020 to 892 in 2023. Later, the numbers dropped slightly to 648 in 2024. In Idukki, the police registered over 1,000 missing cases in 2023. In northern Kerala, districts such as Kannur (rural) and Kasaragod witnessed comparatively lower figures, say police sources.

Missing children

The child disappearance cases also remain a concern for the law enforcement agencies.

As per the Crime Records Bureau data, over 10,000 child missing cases have been reported in Kerala over the past five years, though most children were traced. The police and the families are clueless about over 500 missing children about whom nothing is known after their disappearance. Family disputes, relationship and financial issues, and the influence of social media are the contributing factors for their disappearance, say police officers.

Jurisdictional constraints

“Delayed reporting of the incidents, lack of an integrated real-time database, and jurisdictional constraints often affect investigation in the early stages,” says S. Muraleedharan, a retired police officer who had worked with the AHTU squad.

With the number of missing person cases going up, there is a need for early registration of complaints, improved data-sharing mechanisms, coordination between government and law enforcement agencies, and greater public awareness, he points out.

Police officers with regional crime squads concede that delayed reporting is one of the most important obstacles in missing person investigations. In many cases, families are advised to wait for some time before lodging a complaint, especially when an adult goes missing. This practice, investigators feel, could delay the investigation.

“Investigation during the first few hours of the disappearance of a person is often critical in collecting digital evidence, tracing their movements, and identifying potential witnesses,” notes S. Ranjith, a police officer with the High Tech crime inquiry cell. He points out that delays can result in the loss of mobile phone data, surveillance footage, and other time-sensitive information, crucial in the investigation.

A substantial number of missing person cases in Kerala involve adolescents and young adults. Data from districts such as Kozhikode, Ernakulam, and Thiruvananthapuram show that individuals aged between 16 and 25 years account for a major share of the reported disappearance cases.

“Many of these cases eventually turn out to be instances of elopement, voluntary departure or temporary estrangement from families,” says a senior woman police inspector involved in the probe of a few such cases in Kozhikode. She observes that cyber interactions, exposure to unknown networks, and impetuous decision-making often end up in family conflicts, provoking youngsters to leave home.

“Girls account for a high number of reported missing cases. Many girls leave their homes due to failed personal relationships or family disputes. They are vulnerable to sexual exploitation, trafficking or other forms of abuse,” says a former member of the Child Welfare Committee. She says instances of missing children from various shelter homes under government control need to be seriously looked into.

A. Nireesh, former coordinator of a helpline for children, says that the factors that trigger the disappearance of people, especially children, need to be looked into. There shall be programmes for long-term protection, counselling, and rehabilitation of such persons, he suggests.

Rights activists also observe that there could be involvement of criminal elements at least in a few cases of disappearance of persons. The missing case of K. Hemachandran, a Wayanad native temporarily residing in Kozhikode city, is one such case.

Hemachandran, who ran a private chit fund in the city, went missing in August 2023. It was after 16 months that the police succeeded in solving the mystery that shrouded the disappearance of the businessman. The police found out that he had been murdered and the body buried.

“Hemachandran was abducted and murdered following some financial disputes. His body was recovered from a forest area at Cherambadi in Tamil Nadu, where it was buried,” says a senior police officer who was part of the investigation team.

Hemachandran’s family members say a leaked telephone conversation of one of his abductors helped crack the case. They, however, maintain that a focussed probe would have helped in solving the case.

In contrast, there are many high-profile cases that still remain mysterious. There is no clue yet about the disappearance of a prominent realtor Mohammed Attoor, alias Mami, from Kozhikode in 2023. The two-year-long probe, initially by the local police and later the Crime Branch, could not solve the mystery. Despite extensive interrogation covering nearly 200 individuals linked to Mami, and other investigations, a breakthrough has remained elusive.

P. Rajeevan, a friend of Mami, fears that he might have been abducted. He accuses the police of failing to pursue the case with alacrity.

Incidents of substance abuse have also been found contributing to the increasing number of missing cases. It was after a five-year-long probe into the disappearance of 35-year-old Vijil from Elathur that the police were able to establish it as a case of death due to a drug overdose. His friends allegedly buried him to cover up the incident rather than report it to the police.

Police officers feel that narcotics-induced deaths are an under-recognised factor in missing person cases. They point out that it often involves concealment driven by fear and misinformation.

“When missing persons move from one location to another, their tracking becomes difficult for want of coordination between the agencies based at different locations. The absence of a unified real-time missing persons tracking system often results in the generation of fragmented information,” says an IT expert with the police cyber cell. He also points out that shortage of hands, heavy workload, and the growing number of cybercrime limit the operational capacity of the police force.

Shift in approach called for

Meanwhile, professional counsellors, who often deal with the rehabilitation of missing persons, believe that there should be a shift in the approach to handling the persons. According to them, the police often look into procedural aspects of the case first when they come across a complaint, rather than understanding the complainant’s concerns and the need for prompt intervention. A fast-track investigation should be ensured with all supporting agencies to trace the missing person. A proactive intervention is often needed to help the victims come back to society, they feel.

Psychologists A. Dhanya and P.V. Jincy say there should be interventions to remove the procedural and technical hurdles involved in tracking the missing persons and rehabilitating them.

Investigation during the first few hours of the disappearance of a person is often critical in collecting digital evidence, tracing their movements, and identifying potential witnesses

S. Ranjith,

High Tech police crime inquiry cell

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