After Jahnvi another toddler missing: Parents rely on social media more than the cops

As of Tuesday, a one-and-a-half-year old boy, Abhinav, had been missing for 11 days from the Bishanpura village of Noida. The incident comes close on the heels of another suspected kidnapping case of three-year-old Jahnvi Ahuja, who went missing from India Gate when her family was enjoying an evening out.

Jahnvi was eventually found wandering near Lajwanti Garden in West Delhi’s Janakpuri area on Sunday. The girl’s head was shaved and she had a placard with her name around her neck.

In Abhinav’s case, his mother reportedly said that the toddler was playing with other children of the locality on September 26. She left him for a couple of minutes to go inside to get a change of clothes for him. When she returned, her baby was gone.

Speaking with NDTV, a senior police officer said that the family lives in a congested locality and there have not been any ransom calls yet. The police added that the case is very similar to the Jahnvi Ahuja case.

“We have put out posters and are using social media.”

However, there are reports that suggest the police were rather complacent about the case. In an article in the News Mobile , Abhinav parents said that since the filing of the complaint, no police officer has visited them. The parents also alleged that cops at the Sector 58 Noida police station just filed a complaint and refused to register an FIR. The police did not show any urgency whatsoever, the parents added.

In a touching video, the mother of the one-and-a-half-year old was seen appealing to everyone to look for her “babu”.

Desperate and hapless parents of young Abhinav have launched an appeal on Facebook and Twitter to trace their missing child. The Facebook page which goes by the name Abhinav Missing-08130825878 was created a few hours ago and by the looks of it massive help has already started pouring in. Abhinav’s parents, inspired by the successful use of social media in Jahnvi’s case, feel that their son can be traced faster using the same methods. Also, his missing report has gone viral on Twitter with #AbhinavMissing.

An earlier article on Firstpost,  describes how a “collective” effort by police, campaigns on social media and media brought Jahnvi back. When asked why the police failed to follow other cases of missing children with the same zeal, the additional commissioner of police (New Delhi) SBS Tyagi, who was in charge of the Jahnvi case said:

“We investigate all cases seriously. Some children are traced soon, while others take time.”