Scurry to trace girls missing for 9 months
2 min readPatna: An FIR was lodged with the Gopalganj town police station on Tuesday evening after almost nine months of the mysterious escape of two girls from a short stay home in Gopalganj.
The girls, both above the age of 18 and hailing from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh are still traceless.
The rehabilitation officer of the shelter home for women, Suniti Kumari, lodged the complaint in connection with the escape of Anuradha Kumari and Dooja, stated to be residents of Thane in Maharashtra and Deoria in Uttar Pradesh, respectively.
According to the police complaint, the girls had fled from the shelter home located on Yadopur Road in Gopalganj town on October 5, 2017. Authoritative sources said though a station diary was lodged by the shelter home authorities, no action was taken by the police to trace the girls.
The escape of the girls assumes significance in the wake of the alleged sexual exploitation of inmates of Balika Grih, a short stay home for minor girls at Muzaffarpur run by a non-government organization, Seva Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti, and sponsored by the state government.
Station house officer (SHO) of Gopalganj town police station, Ravi Kumar, said a team has been set up to trace the missing girls. He said efforts were on to contact their family members.
An investigating officer said Anuradha and Dooja had close connections with a few residents of Bhore and Kateya in Gopalganj district. The shelter home didn’t have any CCTV. As a result it couldn’t be ascertained how the girls escaped.
Gopalganj district programme manager Prem Prakash lamented that he had informed officials of the social welfare department about the irregularities and unlawful activities going on in the shelter home.
Amit Kumar Singh, the owner of the building in which the shelter home was running, corroborated Prakash’s statement and told the police that he had noticed some girls being taken outside at night.
“The police are verifying the allegations levelled against the employees of the shelter home,” said SHO Ravi Kumar.
Probe team in Hajipur
A five-member team visited the shelter home in Hajipur on Wednesday and inquired about the allegations levelled against Vaishali district programme officer Manmohan Prasad. The girls living in the home had alleged that Prasad used to sexually abuse them during his visits.
Courtesy: The Telegraph
