Jasmine, a student of St Thomas school, was discovered missing from her home in Old Rajinder Nagar on the morning of May 18. However, her family was not unduly worried as she goes to Gurdwara Bangla Sahib everyday. Usually some family member accompanies her, but once earlier also she had gone there alone. So the family went to the gurdwara to find her.

According to Arlene, the victim's elder sister: ``When all efforts to trace her at the gurdwara failed, we panicked. Finally at 11 am, all relatives and family members decided to lodge a complaint with the police. The police did not even register an FIR that day, they just noted it down in the daily diary.''

Fortunately, one of their relatives had seen her getting into a blue Maruti car and noted the number. The police helped them in tracing the owner of the car, but Jasmine could not be found as the man said that he had just given her a lift till Rajouri Garden, where he was going.

``The police just instructed the man to help us find the girl and have deputed one constable to help us. Everyday, we leave our home in the morning to go and search for that girl. We lost our father three years ago and it is my brother, mother and sisters who are looking for her on the streets. We got posters printed and pasted all over the city. They did not even inform the PCRs and other police stations which is mandatory. We had to leave details and photographs of the girl at every police station and PCR,'' fumes Arlene, who is a teacher in a government school.

``We are at our wits end and today we were supposed to meet the Police Commissioner, but after waiting at his office for two hours, we were told to come again,'' sighs her mother. Jasmine, who is a student of St Thomas, is in a special class as she is a slow learner. Therefore, the family is all the more worried. However, Ajay Kashyap, DCP (Central) said: ``The reason why the case was not registered the same day is because the girl has a history. She had gone missing once earlier also and was found 10-12 days later. She is a slow learner and requires a lot of care. So we just asked the family to search for her for one day and if they did not find her, we would register a case. The next day we registered a case of kidnapping of a minor.''

Stating that there was no malafide intention on their part, Kashyap said they had questioned the man who had given her the lift and found he had no involvement in the case. ``We have sent not one message but several to the PCRs and all police stations and are doing our best to trace her,'' he said.