On Friday, the Supreme Court agreed to consider establishing mandatory guidelines for swift police investigations into missing women complaints. Senior Advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan, representing the minor daughter and sister of a murdered nurse from Rudrapur, argued before Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra that the police showed severe delay in investigating the missing person report from July 31. The nurse’s body was found on August 8.
Ramakrishnan urged the Court to set a standard operating procedure for police to follow promptly on missing women complaints. The bench issued notices to the Union and Uttarakhand governments, seeking their responses to the writ petition, which also calls for an independent central agency inquiry into the nurse’s murder under the supervision of a retired Supreme Court judge.
The petitioners also referenced the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital rape-murder case and requested national guidelines for protecting hospital staff. They proposed a centralized alert system for missing women and asked the Court to direct the Uttarakhand government to provide compensation under the Uttarakhand Compensation Scheme for Women Victims/Survivors of Sexual Assault/Other Crimes, 2022.