On April 26, Khushboo Rajat, 17, went missing while she was on her way back home from work. She was on call with her mother when she realised that a group of men was following her. Shortly after, Khushboo’s mother Jashoda, lost contact with her.

That was the last time Jashoda spoke to her daughter. Since then, Khushboo’s phone has remained off and she continues to be missing, with no clarity of her whereabouts or what has happened to her.

According to Jashoda, the Delhi police have utterly failed her. “If the police had acted maybe we could have found her,” said Jashoda.

Update on May 11: Jashoda received a phone call from Mayur Vihar police station on May 9 stating that Khushboo had been found in Gurugram. She met her daughter for a few minutes, she said, following which Khushboo was taken to a shelter home. "I did not get a chance to speak to her properly," Jashoda said. "I asked her where she was and she just started crying. So I did not want to force her to talk."

Nirav Patel, assistant commissioner of police at Mayur Vihar, told Newslaundry Khushboo had allegedly left home on her own and would record a statement in court.

‘She told me she’s feeling scared’

Jashoda, 35, is the mother of four children – three girls and one boy. Five years ago, Jashoda’s husband died following a cardiac arrest. Since then she has been bringing up her four children by herself. She works in four to five houses as a domestic worker and earns Rs 10,000 a month.

“Even though people around me have been discouraging, I have made sure that all my four children go to school,” she said.

Khushboo works at a gas agency at Laxmi Nagar. She joined the agency after she could not pass her Class 12 exam last year. For the last one month, Khushboo had been preparing to retake the exam which was scheduled for May 2.

“She really wanted to pass her Class 12 exam and was supposed to take it,” said Jashoda.

Everyday on her way home from work, Khushboo calls her mother and stays on the phone with her. “It starts getting dark,” Jashoda said. “So, for safety reasons my daughter remains on call with me when she returns home everyday.”

On April 26 as well, Khushboo called her mother when she left work at around 7 pm. “She asked me if she needed me to buy anything on the way back. I told her no and so she started walking home,” said Jashoda.

However, a few minutes into the call, Khushboo told her mother that she was feeling uncomfortable.

“She told me that three or four men are following her and that she’s feeling scared. I told her that I can’t come immediately because I’m finishing work but I asked her to take off her shoes and run if she’s that scared,” said Jashoda.

At exactly 7.20 pm, Khushboo began frantically screaming for help. “She kept saying ‘Mama save me, please save me’. I could not do anything. And then the phone got cut,” said Jashoda.

A panicked Jashoda rushed towards Lakshmi Nagar. “I called my brother-in-law to come and help me. I started showing people my daughter’s photo asking if they had seen her before,” she said. She and her brother-in-law, Babblu Rajat, 42, a cab driver, went looking for Khushboo.

A desperate search

By around 11 pm that night, Jashoda and Babblu went to Madhu Vihar police station where they filed a missing person complaint. They were not given a copy of the FIR or the complaint.

When Newslaundry reached out to Prabhat Kumar, the investigating officer, he said the FIR could not be handed over as it was late and the typing of the complaint into a digital copy was taking time.

Prabhat claimed the FIR was handed over to the family the following morning. However, Babblu said the family received a copy of the FIR only on April 28 – two days after the FIR was registered. “That too they gave us the copy only after a lawyer known to us called up the police and asked for it,” said Babblu Rajat.

Advocate Rakesh Kumar, whose family employs Babblu as a cab driver, told Newslaundry that he heard about the case on April 28 and asked Babblu for a copy of the FIR.

“That’s when he told me that the police had not given them an FIR copy. So I called Prabhat Kumar, the IO, and asked him for the FIR copy,” said Rakesh. “Only then was the family given a copy of the FIR.”

Additionally, at 1.56 pm on April 27, Babblu said he received a text from investigating officer Prabhat Kumar with a Google location.

“The IO called me and told me they have traced Khushboo’s [phone] location to some place in Gurugram,” Babblu said. “He told me we should follow the location and go look for her there.”

Jashoda was shocked at the police asking the family to search for Khushboo themselves.

“Why did I complain to the police then?” she asked. “They are supposed to help us. He told us that we should inform him if we find her. What should I go look for and where?”

When asked about this, Prabhat explained to Newslaundry that he had sent the location to the family to ask whether Khushboo had a relationship with anyone in Gurugram.

But the first 48 to 72 hours are most crucial in attempting to find a missing child. If Prabhat had identified her last location, why didn’t he go investigate?

“I had to go to court for some other work,” said Prabhat.

Then why didn’t he immediately send another police officer?

“I am not in a position of authority to do that,” was his reply.

Couldn’t he have gone to Gurugram after court hours? Prabhat refused to respond.

So, despite tracing Khushboo’s mobile location the police did not immediately follow the lead. Nevertheless, desperate to find her daughter, Jashoda and Babblu hired a cab and immediately went to Gurugram. However, they were denied entry into the “residential area” marked by the Google location.

“When I told this to Prabhat Kumar, he told us to call the Haryana police,” said Babblu. “We called 100 and the Haryana police came. They also asked us why no one from Delhi police was with us. Once they arrived, we were allowed inside but couldn’t find Khushboo.”

After a futile journey, Babblu and Jashoda returned to Mandawali by nightfall.

Police negligence

On April 28, angered by the inaction of the investigating officer, Jashoda went to the police station again. This time, she submitted another complaint letter to the deputy commissioner of police, Priyanka Kashyap.

Newslaundry accessed a copy of the letter, which read: “IO ASI Prabhat Kumar is the IO of this case. He told me that your daughter Khushboo’s location is in Gurugram (Haryana), so you can go and meet her there to which I replied that we can't go there and it is the police’s job to do so. Despite that I went to Gurugram and I called the police there but I was unable to locate my daughter. IO ASI Prabhat Kumar is not doing any investigation in this case and he is troubling us. Sir, I am very worried. I request your help. I work as a maid, I live on rent and I am a widow.”

Based on this, a formal complaint against Prabhat was registered by Vinit Kumar, additional DCP, east district. The complaint, a copy of which was accessed by Newslaundry, read: “IO ASI Prabhat Kumar is showing very bad attitude, unbecoming of a police officer.”

When this reporter reached out to Priyanka Kashyap to ask if any action had been taken against Prabhat Kumar, she said, “We are pursuing this case. I have understood your concern and will address it.”

After the complaint was filed, Prabhat told Newslaundry he finally went to Gurugram – two days after he had traced Kushbhoo’s location.

“On April 29, I went to Gurgaon and checked the CCTV camera of the building in that location,” he said. “I didn’t find anything.”

On May 2, this reporter accompanied Jashoda to the Madhu Vihar police station. At the station, sub-inspector Anuj Bajaout asked Jashoda, “Are you sure your girl was not having an affair?”

When Jashoda said that she was not aware of any affair and that her daughter was still missing, Bajaout did not respond.

Jashoda then explained how Prabhat had not gone to Gurugram and instead told her to go find her daughter. Bajaout replied, “Who asked you to go when he sent the location? Maybe he was just updating you about his leads based on the ‘Aapka Update’ order.”

The “aapka update” order is a reference to this standing order issued to all police stations in Delhi in 2012. The order, which was aimed towards improving accountability, said a complainant has the right to be updated with information on the status of their complaint.

When this reporter asked Bajaout why the police did not pursue the lead immediately, he did not respond.

Jashoda then met Nirav Patel, assistant commissioner of police of Madhu Vihar, and registered another complaint against Prabhat. Patel said the matter would be looked into seriously.

However, Prabhat remains the investigating officer in this case and Khushboo is still missing.

No progress, no hope

It has been six days since Jashoda has gone to work. Her three other children stay home while she goes out to look for her daughter.

Torn between working and searching for her daughter, Jashoda feels hopeless.

“If I don’t work, I won’t be able to feed my children and I’ll lose my job,” she said. “But if I don’t search for my daughter, how will I find her? I don’t know how to stop looking for her and go back to work.”

Update on May 11: This report has been updated with details on how Khushboo was found on May 9.