Scandal witness missing from shelter

Patna: A 13-year-old girl who was a witness in the Muzaffarpur Balika Grih sexual exploitation case and was among the 44 inmates shifted from the shelter home to a similar facility in Madhubani has gone missing.

Madhubani sadar deputy superintendent of police Kamini Bala said a complaint was lodged with the Town police station alleging that the girl escaped from the shelter home being run in a private building on July 11. “The police carried out raids to trace the girl. However, she is still traceless,” she said. Video footage had been obtained from the shelter home and provided to the investigating officer to ascertain the whereabouts of the girl, Bala added.

The girl was among the 44 residents of Balika Grih, the scandal-hit short stay home in Muzaffarpur, who were shifted to facilities in Madhubani, Mokama and Patna in May. She was one of 14 minor girls transferred to the shelter home in Madhubani run by an NGO, Parihar Seva Sansthan.

News of her going missing comes close on the heels of the mysterious disappearance of 11 women from Swadhar Grih shelter home for adult destitute women in Muzaffarpur in June this year.

The Madhubani mystery took on a political hue with the secretary of the Parihar Seva Sansthan, Pragya Bharti, accusing district child welfare committee member Amresh Srivastava of hatching a conspiracy to drag the NGO into a controversy.

Bharti’s husband is said to be the personal assistant to a senior leader of the JDU from Mithilanchal region. Srivastava countered saying he was facing flak from the secretary of the NGO for highlighting the mismanagement at the home. Some social activists also came out in support of Srivastava and staged a dharna on the collectorate premises.

Local residents alleged that two residents had escaped from the facility in December last year. However, no effort was made by the shelter home authorities to locate the two girls, they said. “Only a sanha (station diary) was lodged and nothing happened,” said a local resident who requested anonymity.

<$>An investigating officer said a CBI team visited the shelter home on Tuesday and inquired about the girls who were shifted from Muzaffarpur Balika Grih in May.

Courtesy: The Telegraph