more-in The Tamil Nadu police on Monday informed the Madras High Court that 9,194 children, who went missing between 2016 and March 2018, had been traced by the regular police and the Anti-Child Trafficking Units (ACTU). However, there were 688 children — 456 girls and 232 boys — who were yet to be traced, G. Nagajothi, Superintendent of Police, submitted in a status report before the court. The 9,194 children who were traced were handed over to their legal guardians, the SP said. The officer further submitted that out of 4,409 cases of exploitation of children, 965 cases were under investigation, 1,887 were pending trial, 706 were not taken on file, 97 ended in conviction, 634 ended in acquittal and 120 were closed. According to the report, 43 anti child-trafficking units were formed on the instructions of the High Court in 2017. “As on date, 45 cases of missing children were taken up for further investigation by the ACTU, and the investigation of 115 cases of missing children has culminated in the tracing of 61 missing children,” the SP said. During the hearing, the division bench headed by Justice M. Sathyanarayanan sought to know if any investigation had been conducted regarding unauthorised and unregistered children homes and orphanages in Tamil Nadu. The bench impleaded the Secretary, Social Welfare Department and its director and directed them to file a report by October 25.

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