Kerala High Court
Kochi : The high court on Wednesday directed the state police chief to file a comprehensive report by Sept 30 on the steps taken to trace Adam Joe Antony, a chartered accountancy student from Palluruthy who went missing on July 28, 2024. Previously, in Aug 2026, the court directed the state police chief to file a report on the steps taken in the matter within three weeks, but the direction was not complied with. the court directed the police to file periodic reports on the investigation until Adam was traced While disposing of the petition. Even then, no results had been obtained, prompting the court to seek a comprehensive report on the steps taken by the investigating team. Accordingly, the bench granted one last chance to the police chief to file the report.
The court was considering a petition filed by K J Antony of Palluruthy, the father of the missing student, asserting that he had not yet been informed of any further progress in the investigation by the authorities after the court disposed of his petition seeking to trace his son in Sept 2025 and entrusted the case to the anti-human trafficking unit (AHTU) of the state police. A bench of Justices Devan Ramachandran and Basant Balaji gave the directive while granting one more chance to file a report, cautioning that if the report was not filed by the next posting date, the court would be constrained to take necessary action against the state police chief.