A 19-year-old woman has alleged sexual abuse, trafficking, torture, disappearance under mysterious circumstances and murder of inmates at Uttar Raksha Grih (after care home) in Bihar capital in what could turn into another ignominious incident on the lines of the infamous Muzaffarpur girl shelter scandal.
The Uttar Raksha Grih at the Gai Ghat in Patna is the only facility of its kind run by the social welfare department of the state government for girls and women over 18 years of age. Destitute girls, victims of human trafficking, those who have been discharged from children’s homes or special homes after attaining adulthood, or girls of special needs, including mentally and physically challenged ones, are kept there. At present, it has 260 boarders.
The woman was working as a maid at a locality in Patna after being released from the after care home around three months ago. She approached Mahila Vikas Sangh (MVS), a civil society organisation working for women, on January 29 to seek work.
She broke down in front of MVS members during counselling and narrated the ordeal she allegedly faced during her seven-month stay at the after care home.
The organisation took her to the women’s police station twice since then to lodge an FIR, but it was not registered on various pretexts. Seeking justice, the MVS members and the victim then talked to journalists earlier this week.
“One night, soon after being sent to the after care home, I took my dinner and lost my consciousness. The next morning, I found that my clothes were not in proper position and my waist and pelvis were aching. The other girls there told me that I was sexually abused after being sedated,” the victim said.
“Girls were given sedatives and men from outside would be allowed to come inside the after care home and sexually abuse them. The girls were afraid of Vandana Gupta, the superintendent. Those who objected were tortured, killed, or mysteriously disappeared. Some girls, including one from Bangladesh, suffered this fate,” she added.
Video clips of the woman talking about her ordeal at the after care home went viral on social media platforms and forced the state government to take notice of it. The social welfare department conducted a hurried enquiry into the issue on the basis of footage from CCTV cameras installed there. Although an FIR was still not registered, it gave a clean chit to the after care home superintendent.
MVS national president Arunima Kumari said the organisation would now do everything so that the woman got justice. “We have decided to fight to the finish after failing to register an FIR. The police kept making frivolous excuses. The government officials and the social welfare department did not take any action in the matter,” Arunima told The Telegraph.
The Patna High Court took suo motu cognisance of the matter on Wednesday. The division bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice S. Kumar asked why no FIR had been registered despite the allegations by the woman.
It also expressed dissatisfaction with the inquiry conducted by the social welfare department only on the basis of CCTV footage, without meeting the woman.
“The aforesaid news is yet again societal/ collective failure and shame in not containing such offences even after this state and the nation read about the happenings in Balika Grih, Muzaffarpur,” the high court bench observed in its oral order.
Asserting that it was “thoroughly dissatisfied with the report of the social welfare department director, the bench said: “There is a lurking fear in our minds that if such kind of offences against humanity is not contained the promises under the Constitution would be rendered completely meaningless and hollow.”
After the high court strictures, the social welfare department called the victim in person on Friday to record her statement.
Social welfare department director Raj Kumar said: “There is nothing in the case. The woman is lying, perhaps under the influence of some people. She is mentally distressed and seems to be suffering from hallucinations.”
