New Delhi : Delhi Police on Thursday rejected reports suggesting a surge in cases of missing girls in the national capital, calling the claims misleading and driven by paid online promotion aimed at creating panic. The police said they had tracked the origin of the viral claims and found that the narrative around a sharp rise in missing girls was being amplified through sponsored posts.
“After following a few leads, we discovered that the hype around the surge in missing girls in Delhi is being pushed through paid promotion. Creating panic for monetary gains won’t be tolerated, and we’ll take strict action against such individuals,” Delhi Police said in a post on X. The clarification came after media reports, citing Delhi Police data, reported that 807 people went missing in the city between January 1 and January 15, 2026, averaging about 54 cases a day.
On average, around 27 people were reported missing each day during the period, even as about nine were traced daily, the data claimed. It further said that 181 people, including 90 men and 91 women, had been located, while 435 adults were still unaccounted for. While Delhi Police maintained that there has been no rise in missing persons cases compared to last year, it did not release updated figures. Joint Commissioner of Police (Public Relations) Sanjay Tyagi dismissed the reports as “rumours”, saying the trend remained in line with previous years.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) slammed the BJP-led Delhi government, saying it has turned the city into Lapataganj! (a city of missing people). The BJP has turned Delhi into Lapataganj! (a city of missing people). In the last 15 days, more than 800 people have gone missing in Delhi, the capital of India. 63% of them are girls and women,” AAP said in a post on X.
-
-
-
-
