Cuttack: The Orissa high court has directed Puri police to intensify efforts to trace and rescue without delay a minor girl who was kidnapped in 2023 and has been missing since then.While hearing the matter, a bench, headed by Chief Justice Harish Tandon and Justice M S Raman, noted that despite steps taken by the authorities, the child remains untraceable, calling the situation “alarming.”According to case records, the child was allegedly kidnapped while her mother was selling tender coconuts outside a hotel in Puri in Dec 2023. Around 6:20 pm, a man and a woman arrived in a car and while the former engaged the mother in a conversation over buying coconuts, the woman allegedly picked up the child, who was two years old then, from near the vehicle and fled.Earlier on Feb 23, 2026, the high court had pulled up the police over lack of progress in tracing the child and directed the Puri SP to constitute a special task force and personally monitor the investigation.When the matter was taken up for hearing on Monday, additional government advocate Debashis Tripathy, representing the state, informed the court that a special team had been formed under the SP and the team has conducted searches at multiple locations and reached out to hospitals and the Child Welfare Committee for possible leads, but has so far failed to find any clue.Taking note of it, the bench observed, “It is really alarming that a child, who was allegedly taken away from the custody of biological parents, is still untraceable. We show our concern over the welfare of the said child and there is a reasonable apprehension in our mind that unless the said child is immediately rescued and/or recovered, there is every possibility of the said child being misused.”Accordingly, the bench directed the Puri SP “to proceed in rescuing and/or recovering the said minor child and submit a report regarding further progress made in this regard on the next date of listing.”The matter has been posted for further hearing on April 6.In the February 23 order, the HC had observed: “It is a sordid state of affair that since 2023, the instant writ petition in the nature of habeas corpus is pending before this Court and despite several directions having passed from time to time, the minor girl, who is allegedly kidnapped, is not able to be rescued.”
