Two days after the UT police booked a supervisor of Bal Niketan, a shelter home for destitute girls, on the charges of sexual harassment with the girl inmates, police arrested the accused on Wednesday.
The accused Maneesh Arora, 50, was arrested from his residence at Bal Niketan in Sector-15 and he will be produced before the district court on Thursday.Sources in police said the accused has claimed that he was innocent and was being implicated in a conspiracy. He claimed that he never touched any girl with bad intention and all the allegations were false.
A probe against the two women, Meena Sharma (attendant) and Manjeet Kaur (senior attendant), has also been initiated by the police. The victims had complained several times to Meena and Manjeet about the activities of Maneesh, but they never took any action against him.A case on the recommendations of Deputy Commissioner, Mohammad Shayin, was registered under Sections 354, 354-A and Sections 10, 12 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POSCO) Act on Monday.
On April 3, some girl inmates of Bal Niketan had complained to the child helpline number (1098) alleging that they were being sexually harassed by a staff member of Bal Niketan. Following the complaint, a four-member committee was constituted by the Department of Social Welfare to investigate the matter.
Around 16 girls aged between 8 to 18 years deposed before the committee out of which 12 complained about Arora sexually harassing them.The inmate girls told to the inquiry committee that Maneesh used to hug, touch the shoulders and pat on their back which made them feel very uncomfortable. They also stated that Maneesh often used to visit their rooms while they were alone.