Overview
- Police say they traced and reunited 701 missing people between May 7 and May 21 as part of a statewide review of old cases.
- Officers are following a formal 15-point standard operating procedure that orders reopening files, re-contacting complainants and analysing digital evidence such as phones and social media activity.
- Investigators report the operation has uncovered suspected trafficking modules, including claims of baby-selling, and those leads are now the subject of parallel criminal probes.
- Reopened investigations have exposed varied causes of disappearance, from domestic disputes and remarriage to criminal exploitation, illustrated by a 2016 case in which a woman and her son were found living in Rajkot.
- The drive is ongoing and comes against a backdrop of 24,767 missing-person reports in Gujarat since 2007, a fact that officials say could prompt sustained technical policing and more trafficking crackdowns.