The Patna High Court rapped Bihar police on Monday for the 'common man's loss of faith in police', when they produced before it nine-year-old kidnapped boy Gaurav Kumar alias Golu before the expiry of the court's fourth deadline.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice J N Bhatt and Justice R N Prasad expressed happiness that the Class IV student had returned home unharmed, but said many more innocent people still remained in captivity.

The bench directed Bihar police chief Ashish Ranjan Sinha to appear before it at 2.15 pm to state how many more children and women in the state had not been rescued after being kidnapped.

When it resumes the hearing after the lunch recess, the court would also discuss compensation to be paid by the state for the violation of Golu's fundamental rights and to his parents who had undergone 'trauma, stress, pain and agony' for the past 26 days.

• Right to life not protected in Bihar: HC

Golu's safe return home came before the expiry of the fourth deadline set by the high court on Monday. The court had, on October 7, directed police to rescue the boy safely and produce him before it on October 17.

The police, which had been patting its own back on Golu's release, could not escape the court's anger over the prevailing state of affairs in Bihar.

"The police administration in the state prima facie seems to have gone to the lowest level," the court observed, admonishing the police that 'the common man's faith in the police needs to be restored'.