Mumbai: More than 26,000 girls and women went missing from Mumbai alone in the last five years, out of which 24,444 were found and 2,264 are yet to be traced, Maharashtra government data have revealed.

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis produced the data in a written reply in response to a query by Congress MLAs in the Assembly.

The monsoon session of the state legislature is currently under way in Nagpur.

"(A total of) 26,708 women, including 5,056 minor girls, had gone missing from 2013-17, out of which 24,444 were found. However, 2,264 of them are yet to be traced," Fadnavis, who also holds the home portfolio, said.

The leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, and other Congress leaders had sought to know the number of missing women and girls.

Fadnavis said 4,758 of the 5,056 girls who had gone missing had been found. Among the 26,708 who had gone missing, 21,652 were above 18, of which 19,686 have been found.

The figures show that a rising number of minor girls have been going missing since 2015, while there has been a consistent rise in women over 18 going missing since 2013.

The chief minister said that according to Supreme Court directives given in May 2013, all missing complaints regarding minors should be registered as kidnapping and not missing.

Fadnavis said that in the case of minors, a total of three offences had been registered in city police stations for kidnapping with intent to making children beg for money. Out of those, two accused have been convicted while one was acquitted.

In the case of women over 18, 11 offences were registered for using women to perform immoral acts, out of which 10 are sub judice, according to the data.

The figures were tabled in the House on July 10.

Asked to comment, the leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, Dhananjay Munde (NCP), alleged that Fadnavis was not doing justice to the home portfolio. PTI