MP High Court Hands Over Probe To CBI A Year After Daughter Went Missing, Cites Suspected Human Trafficking

The Madhya Pradesh High Court's Gwalior Bench has directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to take over the probe into the disappearance of a 19-year-old woman from Gwalior who has been missing since April 2025, holding that the case involves suspected inter-state human trafficking that is beyond the jurisdictional reach of the local police.

A division bench of Justice G.S. Ahluwalia and Justice Anuradha Shukla passed the order on a habeas corpus petition filed by Shelendra Kumar Upadhyay, seeking the recovery of his daughter, referred to in the proceedings as the "corpus," from what the petition described as her illegal detention.

According to the order, the petitioner's daughter, Dolly, then 19 years and 8 months old and residing with relatives in Morar, left home for college on April 28, 2025, and did not return that evening. A missing person report was lodged the next day. The petitioner claimed the police made no meaningful attempt to trace her, forcing him to approach the High Court on April 7, 2026, nearly a year later.

The court first took up the matter on April 8, 2026, directing the state to file a status report and step up efforts to locate the missing woman, and heard it at regular intervals since. A fresh status report, backed by an affidavit and filed on the day of the order, told the court that a nationwide search had been conducted, along with data recovery efforts involving the Cyber Forensic Unit and bank authorities, but that the woman remained untraced.

The order also records that respondent No.4, the person suspected of holding the woman, has himself been untraceable and out of contact with his family since April 2025, with a missing person report filed regarding him too. A criminal case, Crime No.356/2026, has already been registered at Police Station Morar, Gwalior, against respondent No.4 and others over the disappearance, and investigation was ongoing.

The bench noted that while it was satisfied the local police had been "seriously investigating" the matter, the inquiry now extended to different cities across the country, an area where local police "know the limits" of their reach. It observed that "the angle of illegal human trafficking is also being suspected in this case," and that despite nearly a year and a half of investigation, "there are no clues whatsoever regarding her whereabouts." The court also acknowledged "the agony and anxiety of the petitioner, who is father of the corpus."

While cautioning that handing over a probe to an agency like the CBI "should not be easily invoked" as a matter of course, the bench held that it could not overlook that the local police, despite their best efforts, remained "clueless in the case." It reasoned that in crimes involving a "multi-states criminal syndicate," local police, however honest and vigilant, face jurisdictional limits that make inter-state tracking difficult, and that only a centralised agency could seamlessly track suspects across the country.

The court accordingly directed the Town Inspector of Police Station Morar to hand over the case diary of Crime No.356/2026 to the CBI, with the Principal Registrar of the High Court asked to communicate a copy of the order to the Director, CBI without delay. It directed the investigating officer to take up the probe "forthwith, without any loss of time," expressing hope that the investigation would be completed "with reasonable expedition and dispatch." With these directions, the petition was disposed of.

The bench clarified that transferring the probe carried no criticism of the local police, recording the order "without recording any dissatisfaction on the investigation conducted by the local police." It also directed that the case diary be returned to the Government Advocate once transfer formalities are complete.

Advocate Harshit Sharma appeared for the petitioner, while Government Advocate C.P. Singh represented the State. Deputy Solicitor General Praveen Kumar Newaskar appeared for respondent No.5 UIDAI, and advocate B.S. Gour represented the intervener in the matter.

Case Title: Shelendra Kumar Upadhyay vs. The State of Madhya Pradesh and Others

Date of Order: August 18, 2026

Bench: Justice G.S. Ahluwalia and Justice Anuradha Shukla