Saharanpur: Torture, sexual harassment, bribery — these are among the main allegations made by minors against four former staff members at a government-run shelter for girls in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh.
On 20 June, an FIR was filed against the four staffers of the Rajsi Development and Research Sansthan, the NGO managing the juvenile home for the past 15 years. The accused are manager Vedpal Singh alias Vedpal Mongra, superintendent Pinki, housekeeping staff member Ravi, and cook Murti Devi.
The shelter houses minor girls, roughly ranging in age from 9 to 17. Some of these residents eloped with their partners, got married, and made the choice to not return to their parents’ homes. However, due to their status as minors, they are unable to live with their partners legally. In many instances, the parents have filed cases against their daughters’ partners.
The allegations of abuse reportedly surfaced after sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Krati Raj inspected the shelter on 20 May. As reported earlier by ThePrint, it was then that the girls first spoke out about their ordeal.
Subsequently, district magistrate (DM) Dinesh Chandra constituted a three-member committee — comprising SDM Raj, SDM (Sadar) Kinshuk Srivastava, and sub-inspector Sunita Malan from the women’s police station in the district — which visited the shelter over 30 and 31 May, and submitted a detailed report.
The FIR, which ThePrint has accessed, cites the panel’s 31 May report, which noted that manager Vedpal Mongra had allegedly behaved in an “objectionable” and “condemnable” manner with the minor girls. Further, three of the girls claimed to have been “beaten with excessive cruelty at the hands of the superintendent Pinki even over small issues”.
Further, the committee found that the manager and the housekeeping staff member Ravi — who is related to Vedpal — were taking bribes from family members of the young men who wished to meet their partners lodged in the shelter.
“Hence, initiate legal proceedings against superintendent Pinki, manager V.P. Singh (Vedpal), housekeeper Ravi and cook Murti Devi on the basis of the inspection report,” reads the FIR, lodged after the SDM (Sadar) wrote to the district probation officer Abhishek Pandey on 8 June.
Speaking to ThePrint, senior superintendent of police (SSP), Saharanpur, Vipin Tada said: “Investigation is on. An inquiry by the CWC (child welfare committee) Saharanpur and CWC Baghpat is underway. The high court has also ordered a probe. We are recording the statements of the girls. It will not be correct for me to comment on the same because the high court has sought a report from the local court.”
Under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, the CWC is an autonomous body declared as a competent authority to deal with children in need of care and protection and is required to conduct two inspections per month of facilities for such minors.
The story of the Saharanpur home is not the first of its kind. In 2018, the media had reported a case of alleged sexual exploitation of girls in a shelter home in Deoria, Uttar Pradesh. This incident had come close on the heels of a similar case reported earlier that year, where 34 residents of a government-run shelter in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, were allegedly subjected to regular sexual exploitation.
ThePrint looks at the events and allegations surrounding the Saharanpur case.
‘Ma’am I need your help…’
On 24 June, four days after the FIR was lodged, a news channel reported on the allegations made by the minors at the shelter home against staff members. The accusations ranged from sexual harassment and physical violence to verbal abuse and substandard food.
In videos recorded by a media person who visited the shelter, they narrated details of how manager Vedpal “harassed everyone”, committed “obscene acts”, and administered beatings, while superintendent Pinki — Vedpal’s niece — meted out physical torture, even “smearing chilli powder on minor girls’ private parts”. ThePrint has accessed these videos.
One of the shelter home’s residents, in a video, accused Vedpal of abusing the girls and referring to them as “bitches”. Another accused Pinki of “removing (the girl’s) clothes” and making a video.
One of the girls can be heard saying in the video that they were not given proper food at the facility.
Soon after SDM Raj’s inspection, one of the 45 residents at the shelter home reportedly wrote to SDM Krati Raj, in which she detailed the routine harassment she was allegedly undergoing at the hands of Vedpal.
The letter purportedly written by the girl, which ThePrint has a copy of, levels serious allegations against Vedpal and Pinki.
“…Ma’am, mujhe aapki madad ki bahut zarurat hai… (I need your help),” reads the letter, which is written in Hindi.
“Vedpal Singh has harassed me several times. He would call me into his office and would tell me that he really liked me and that if I complied with him, he would send me to my in-laws’ home),” it adds.
The letter’s writer threatens to commit suicide if she does not “get justice”.
The letter goes on to claim that when she tried to encourage her fellow residents to “raise their voice against Vedpal”, they couldn’t muster the courage. However, when Vedpal got wind of the situation, he not only accused the girl of “instigating” others but also informed Pinki, who then allegedly beat her up as punishment.
The girls started a hunger strike on 17 June in their quest for justice. The matter and the contents of the letter emerged in the media after the girls were admitted to a hospital on 19 June — the third day of their strike.
Officials at the Janta Hospital, located near the shelter facility, confirmed to ThePrint that 11 girls between the ages of 9 and 17 were admitted to the hospital. Most of them, they said, had suffered a “heat stroke and were starving”.
‘Inflated’ claims?
ThePrint reached DM Dinesh Chandra, SSP Vipin Tada, SDM Krati Raj, district probation officer Abhishek Pandey and Janakpuri SHO Sanuj Yadav for a comment on the letter, but all claimed they had no information on it.
Asked if the letter will be included in the investigation, SSP Vipin Tada told ThePrint that a high court-monitored probe is on, but that he cannot comment on the matter yet.
“The irregularities that had come to fore are being fixed. An investigation is on, but I can say that the things that are being said on social media are inflated,” DM Dinesh Chandra claimed.
A police source close to the investigation, however, told ThePrint that the girls, in their video statements recorded before the police, have upheld the allegations made in the viral video.
DM Chandra, meanwhile, questioned how a journalist entered the premises of the juvenile home on 24 June. “One needs to obtain permission, which one can get from the juvenile justice board and CWC,” he said.
“Our officials are currently fixing the lapses found there, like waterlogging and dripping roof,” he added. “These are being fixed.”
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‘Bribery, mistreatment’
Relatives and partners of some of the minor victims told ThePrint about instances of alleged mistreatment and corruption at the shelter home, including being asked to pay bribes to meet the girls.
In one instance, a man claimed he was asked to pay a bribe of Rs 1 lakh by housekeeper Ravi in order to ensure a positive testimony by a girl at the juvenile home for his nephew, with whom she had eloped last year. In addition to this, Ravi would also charge Rs 3,000 per meeting, he further alleged. According to the man, Ravi facilitated 16 such meetings over 13 months, charging a total of Rs 48,000.
“He told us the girl might change her testimony in court under pressure from her parents and said that he will ensure that it doesn’t happen,” said the man, on condition of anonymity. “During the meetings, she was accompanied by Ravi and Pinki and wasn’t able to say much. The meetings would last just five minutes.”
He added that during one such meeting in April this year, the girl told him that she was not being given all the food items that the man had been bringing her.
Many relatives of the minor girls said that they were unaware of the ill-treatment being meted out at the shelter, only learning of the allegations after 11 girls were admitted to the Janta Hospital following their hunger strike.
“When they were admitted to a hospital, we found out that the girls had suffered heat stroke and had to be hospitalised,” the mother of one of the minors told ThePrint. “All the girls allege they were not being fed properly. My daughter informed me that she was denied treatment when she fell ill. She had earned Rs 400 by stitching clothes inside the shelter home, which she had to spend on medicines,” she said.
According to a Janta Hospital official, all the girls were low on haemoglobin.
“Their haemoglobin count varied between 6.0-7.0 g/dl (normal levels usually range between 12 to 16 g/dl). They underwent CBC (complete blood count), CRP (C-reactive protein), LFT (liver function tests), KFT (kidney function tests). They were low in CBC and CRP,” the official told ThePrint.
Dr Rakib Javed, owner of the hospital, gave media persons similar information in a video statement on 24 June.
“All the girls were found to be anaemic, with two of them critically anaemic. Two girls were discharged in the night (on 19 June) but they had to re-admitted later when their problem persisted. After two days, they were discharged from the hospital,” Javed said.
Sahiba Malik, a member of the nursing staff who attended to the girls, told ThePrint that they had “a lot of issues.”
“They were telling us that they were given only dal-chawal (rice and lentils) daily and didn’t get proper breakfast. Seven to eight girls had to be given iron shots, and one had to be given blood transfusion,” she said.
‘Relevant sections of POCSO should be invoked’
The FIR was lodged on 20 June under sections 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult to provoke breach of peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and sections 7 and 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
However, speaking to ThePrint, senior advocate and former member of the Juvenile Justice Board of Noida, Aneet Baghel, said that since one of the girls had alleged harassment and another had said that her “clothes were removed”, relevant sections under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and IPC section 354 (assault of criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) should have been invoked.
“The POCSO Act is gender neutral. Even if a woman is committing such an act, the offense should attract sections under POCSO. This is a shocking case and the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights should take immediate cognisance of the matter,” he added.
Saharanpur CWC chairperson Anil Kumar Richariya told ThePrint, “The DM had asked us to inquire into the incident and we will submit our findings on the same.”
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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