Making mockery of the administration and security personnel of Adharshila observation home at Kingsway Camp in Mukherjee Nagar, in yet another breach at juvenile observation home, around 40 inmates, including the accused of a murder case fled the shelter home on Monday afternoon after scaling the walls. Sources said one of the two inmates who orchestrated the escape was involved a robbery-cum-murder case of a jeweller’s wife in Mayur Vihar area of November last year. Escapees have also been sexually exploited other children staying at the centre.
Sources said another was apprehended for his involvement in at least three robberies in Amar Colony, Nizamuddin and Kotla Mubarak Pur area of South Delhi. The first juvenile was brought to the home two months ago, while the second boy was admitted to the home one month ago. Preliminary investigations have revealed that the remand home administration was shifting five juveniles, including two habitual offenders of the home to Majnu ka Tila observation home. Those involved in the transfer did not cover their tracks and it gave opportunity to the ring leaders of the remand home to instigate and threaten other inmates who later created ruckus and run away taking advantage of the commotion at Sewa Kutir.
Superintendent of Adharshila observation, Anil Kumar said, “Out of five juveniles, two juveniles were creating nuisance in the home for the last three weeks, while others were sexually abusing the other inmates. We have received complaints against them and after discussing with the senior officers, we have decided to shift them at Majnu ka Tila observation home,” he added.
He said that number of times, they have requested the senior magisterial judges to shift the repeated offenders to other home but no one has done anything. This is the fifth incident of rioting across State-run homes for juveniles in the last seven months. Incident occurred on Monday afternoon around 2.45 when the authorities were shifting these juveniles. “All these five juveniles were taken to the playground and they were asked to sit in the police vans. The two juveniles however did not want to shift and they somehow realised that they will be moved out. One of the juveniles came out from the police van and went to the observation home where he first hit his head on wall and then instigated other boys against the administration,” police sources added.
Sources also stated that the juveniles instigated other boys after saying that they were thrashed by the members of the staff and also claimed that he was abused by the staff members of the administration. They told them they will be ill treated and forced into child labour by the staff if they do not run away and threatened other inmates that they would face dire consequences if they do not escape. “The officials of administration department were waiting for juvenile when suddenly all the juveniles started creating ruckus inside the home. The security personnel went into tizzy but till the time, around 40 juveniles went behind the home and scaled the boundary walls with the help of tree stumps recently felled by the gardener,” police sources added.
Meanwhile, the incident led to a series of meeting between the Juvenile Justice Board, officials of the juvenile home and the Delhi Police throughout the day. “The juveniles did not damage the property of the home. Apart from the lock of the dormitory, everything else was found to be intact. We are discussing the matter with concerned officers and no police complaint has been made so far,” official said.