Forty-eight hours after the Deoria women shelter home scandal, the state was rocked by a similar case in Hardoi. In lucknow too, one of the inmates in a shelter home was found missing.
District Magistrate of Hardoi Pulkit Khari raided a shelter home at Beniganj area on the CM’s directions and was shocked to find 19 out of the 21 women inmates missing under mysterious circumstances.
Sources said that when Khare reached the home on Monday night and checked the register, he found the names of 21 inmates but on physical inspection, he was shocked to find only two inmates were present there.
The shelter run by Ayesha Gramudyog Samiti is owned by Pihani lohani. When Khari enquired about missing inmates, the superintendent claimed that she had no information and confirmed that for the last few days, only two inmates were present at the home. The DM also found inadequate facilities at the shelter home. Sources said that Khari later stopped all government aid to the home and ordered an enquiry into the matter.
Sources added that in lucknow too, ACM (I) Praful Tripathi raided the government-run women protection home at Prag Narain Road and found one of the inmates missing.
District Magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma formed eight teams, which raided different protection homes on Monday night. At Prag Narain Road, one of the inmates was found missing. On enquiry, an attendant said that the inmate was not seen after July 29. Superintendent of the home Aarti Singh was not available so the DM ordered a magisterial enquiry. Sharma will present a detailed report to the government on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, in Deoria, the medical examination of 20 of the inmates shocked authorities as they learnt that 10 of them were adults but were still kept in the shelter home meant only for minors. The examination also confirmed sexual exploitation.
The inmates also disclosed that they were given poor quality food and, on the complaint, they were assaulted and abused. They also alleged that the girls were sent to lucknow and Gorakhpur for sexual exploitation for which they were paid Rs 500 to Rs 1,000. They also revealed that the shelter home was used for human trafficking and children were sold in some overseas countries. One of the girls revealed that in child protection home on Station Road in Deoria, children up to 10 years were kept and recently some citizens of Spain had come and purchased four boys and a girl and took them away.
Interestingly, Girija Tripathi, who was running the shelter home and was arrested, also exposed how authorities were facilitating her to run the home.
“I want to ask the government that when the shelter home was cancelled by the Centre on June 23, 2017, why did the administration keep 709 girls since then at the home,” Girija Tripathi asked. She added that in the last two years, they forcibly kept 337 women or girls over 18 years in her shelter home when it was meant just for minors. Tripathi said that all 10 adult girls rescued on Sunday night were lodged by the police.