Four of 5 accused in sexual abuse of girl at Jamshedpur shelter home arrested
The police have arrested the absconding director of a government-approved shelter home, his wife, and two others for the alleged sexual abuse of the institute’s minor inmates, officials familiar with the matter said on Wednesday
The police have arrested the absconding director of a government-approved shelter home, his wife, and two others for the alleged sexual abuse of the institute’s minor inmates, officials familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
A fifth accused is still on the run.
On June 5, two girl inmates aged 16 and 17 had escaped from the children’s home run by an NGO called Mother Teresa Welfare Trust (MTWT) and were later rescued by the police. They had then levelled serious charges of rampant sexual abuse at the shelter.
Jamshedpur city superintendent of police Subhash Chandra Jat said a special team led by assistant superintendent of police Kumar Gaurav arrested MTWT director Harpal Singh Thapar (46), his wife Pushpa Rani Tirkey (45), warden Geeta Kaur (45) and her son Aditya Singh (20) with the help of Singrauli police on Tuesday. Tirkey was also the chairperson of the East Singhbhum district child welfare committee. They were all booked under various sections of the Pocso (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act and the Indian Penal Code on June 6.
“The four of the five named accused have been absconding since June 7 and the team led by ASP Kumar Gaurav tracked them down through their cellphone locations with the help of Singrauli police. They were brought here this morning on transit remand and sent to jail after Covid-19 test,” said Jat, adding that raids are on to nab the fifth accused, Tony David.
The city SP said the investigation has found charges of sexual, physical, and psychological exploitation of the two rescued girl inmates and further probe is on to find out “how many more victims were there in the shelter home, actual number of total inmates, how such crimes were suppressed and how girl inmates were used to implicate people in fake cases”.
Jat added that two such allegations levelled by a Mango (a Jamshedpur suburb) resident and the wife of a panchayat member are being investigated.
Earlier, the two rescued girls had given details about the abuse of other inmates at the children’s home in recorded statements on video. Then on June 11, two more girls went missing from the MTWT home at the time of shifting 41 inmates from there to another children’s home in Patamda.
Meanwhile, the Jharkhand government has cancelled the registration of MTWT (not in any way linked to the Missionaries of Charity of Mother Teresa) and terminated the appointment of Tirkey as CWC chief with immediate effect, said D K Saxena, member secretary of Jharkhand State Child Protection Society.
