After the horror house incident of Bihar’s Muzaffarpur, a similar case has emerged from Uttar Pradesh (UP) where 24 girls have been rescued from a shelter home in Deoria district on August 6, after found to be allegedly involved in human trafficking.
The incident came to light after a 10-year-old girl from Bettiah, Bihar, managed to escape the shelter home in Deoria district and reached the police station to narrate her ordeal. 18 out of total 42 girls enrolled are said to be missing. They were being forced to engage in sex racket and work as domestic servants.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has immediately transferred Deoria District Magistrate (DM) Sujit Kumar for his negligence to check running of unauthorized Ma Vindhywasini Shelter Home. Etah DM Amit Kishore has been appointed as the new DM. Kumar, who has been unceremoniously shunted out was found that he allowed the shelter home to function in full swing despite its license was canceled in June 2017 by the government on the basis of complaints about its malfunctioning.
Adityanath has also ordered initiation of departmental proceedings against former probation officers Anoop Singh and Neeraj Kumar and ordered the immediate suspension of the former district probation officer, Abhishek Pandey for his negligence of duties. He has also sought reports from all the district magistrates after immediately inspecting such shelter homes running in other districts within 12-hours.
A two-member high-level committee led by Principal Secretary Renuka Kumar and Additional DG Police Anju Gupta has been deputed for conducting the first-hand investigation into the case.
Meanwhile, IG Law and Order Praveen Kumar while briefing the media about the details of Deoria shelter home case said, “A case has been registered and police teams are investigating every person involved in this crime. Two persons Girija Tripathi and Mohan Tripathi have been arrested in this connection. We are calculating the total number of girls in the shelter home, medical examinations of recovered girls are also being conducted there. Cases have been registered under the relevant provisions of IPC, Juvenile Justice Act and POSCO Act.”
Despite best efforts, the version from the shelter home management could not be obtained but local sources confine that ever since the new government has come to power it became harder for the management to run the home. Their license was canceled and aid was stopped. Despite the cancellation, various government departments continued to send inmates to cater them in the shelter home. The management had approached the high court for their grievances against the government.
Congress MLA Aditi Singh lambasted on the BJP government and said, “This shocking case has exposed the hollowness of BJP flagship campaign- Beti Padao-Beti Bacho (Save Girl Child, Educate Girlchild). The efforts of government have miserably failed to provide safety and security to women. One after another such incident ashamed the state.”
Earlier in a similar case, 44 girls were rescued from a shelter home in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur after it was found out that they were being abused by the owner of the NGO, Brajesh Thakur, was raping the minors along with many of his accomplices.
