The CBI has registered six fresh cases on connection with the alleged abuse of inmates in shelter homes in Bihar, taking the tally to nine.
The cases were registered on the basis of details given in the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) audit report of shelter homes in Bihar. The TISS report brought sordid state of mismanagement, abuse and unlivable conditions. Following the TISS report, the Supreme Court had also directed the CBI to probe all the 17 cases of abuse at the various shelter homes.
In its May 2018 report, TISS had expressed “grave concerns” on the management of 17 shelter homes, including ‘Balika Grih’ in Muzzafarpur where 34 girls had reported abuse at the hands of office-bearers and outsiders.
The audit report was submitted to the State Government and later became the basis of a SC directive for a CBI probe into the Muzaffarpur shelter home case. The apex court later handed over the remaining 16 cases to the agency.
The CBI, which had on Wednesday booked two shelter homes in Bhagalpur and Gaya, registered six new cases against Novelty Welfare Society, which ran a short-stay home in Munger district; Panaah shelter home, also in same district; Gram Swaraj Sewa Sansthan which ran a short-stay home in Kaimur; Om Sai Foundation which ran sewa kutir in Muzzafarpur; and short-stay home run by Ikard and Kaushal Kutir run by Don Bosco Tech Society in Patna.
Director of Novelty Welfare Society and others used to lock the room of a mentally-sick woman inmate causing wrongful restraint and confinement and ill-treated other inmates.
The NGO also sublet a portion of the shelter home for a rent of Rs 10,000 and did not provide proper ventilation or sanitation facilities for the inmates, the FIR alleged.
In the case of ‘Panaah’, it is alleged that office-bearers of the home “physically exploited” the inmates forcing them to do manual work including cooking and cleaning, the FIR stated.
The FIR said the shelter home was being run from a building meant for an observation home and was not “livable” for young children.
The CBI has booked Sudarshan Ram, Pintu Pal and Tara Devi, all office-bearers of Gram Swaraj Sewa Sansthan, which ran the short-stay home at Lalpur in Kaimur district.
It is alleged that the security guard was sexually abusive, passing lewd comments and physically assaulting women and girls inmates.