After employees of a shelter home in Muzaffarpur, Bihar were arrested last month for allegedly sexually harassing the girls living there, a similar case came to light on Sunday when the Deoria police arrested the couple running the Maa Vindhyavasini shelter home and rescued 24 girls from the home.
The license of the home in Deoria was revoked following an inspection by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Both the man and his wife were managers at the shelter home. Due to irregularities, the recognition of the shelter home was stripped off in June 2007, but the managers continue to run it after getting a stay order from High Court.
On Monday the District Magistrate raided the shelter home looking for the relevant documents, which however could not be found, according to ABP News.
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Sujit Kumar, DM, Deoria told ABP News that in the complaint they received a list of 42 children. He said that it may be possible that some of them went away. “We can reach any conclusion only after we have completed the enquiry”.
‘The shelter home was authorised by CARA (Central Adoption Resource Authority),” he told ABP News.
The incident came to light after a girl escaped from the shelter home and informed the police how they were all treated like servants.
News reports said the minor also told the police that some men would visit the shelter home regularly in the evening and take four to five girls after talking to Tripathi and her husband. When the girls were dropped at the shelter late at night, they would be crying.
Tripathi, however, denied the charges.
On Sunday the Superintendent of Police Rohan P Kanay told ANI, “When the order to close this institution was made, our people went there and the organisation’s director misbehaved with our team. Today, after a girl escaped from there, we got to the reality of that place. There have been many big disclosures during the investigation. 24 children have been rescued safely so far.”
He further informed that the institution’s director Girija Tripathi and her husband have been arrested. A probe is underway and further details are awaited.
(with inputs from ANI)