The Patna high court on Friday ordered Bihar government to search for 143 missing children and 581 missing women in the state and submit a report in this connection within six weeks.

The court order came during the hearing of a case filed by Arvind Kumar, who questioned the whereabouts of these missing children and women in the backdrop of the infamous Nithari case.

The court expressed its unhappiness over delay to trace the missing children and women. Official sources in the court told rediff.com that the court took the case of missing children and women seriously and directed the state government to immediately search for them and submit an Action Taken Report report to it.

According to state government's own affidavit submitted to the court, 143 children and 581 women were missing across the state.

Police officials admit that most of the missing children and women were either abducted, killed or had not returned home in the last five years.