Gaighat (Patna), Bihar

On January 29, a 19-year-old girl, a former resident of the government-run Uttar Raksha Greh in Patna, approached a local non-profit and alleged sexual abuse at the shelter home for orphaned girls at Gaighat area of the state capital. It’s been seven days but no FIR has been registered in this case. 

Meanwhile, on February 2, the Patna High Court took suo motu cognisance of the matter and questioned the state authorities on the manner in which investigations have been conducted so far. The high court bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice S Kumar also took note of the failure of the state authorities in registering the FIR. 

In its oral order on February 2, the high court also ordered the additional chief secretary of the social welfare department to investigate the case.

Two investigations of the case – one by the Director of the Social Welfare Department, and the other by the Juvenile Justice Monitoring Committee – have already been carried out. But questions have been raised on the ‘investigation’. 

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“What is rather surprising for us to note is that no FIR has been registered on such disclosure of the victim. Even more surprising is that the Director of the Social Welfare Department has conducted an inquiry and only on the basis of the CCTV footage installed in the After Care Home has come to the conclusion that the accusation made by the so-called victim is baseless and false,” reads the February 2 court order that has quoted the monitoring committee’s report.

‘No FIR despite running pillar to post’

The 19-year-old victim has made strong allegations against the functioning of the shelter home. “Under the supervision of superintendent Vandana Gupta of the shelter home, girls are being forced into sexual abuse and girls are being supplied to customers,” the victim told Gaon Connection on February 2. “The girls are also drugged here and those who refuse are tortured,” she added showing her bruised arms.

She also levelled accusations of some unidentified higher officials being complicit in the crime. Gaon Connection tried getting in touch with the supervision of superintendent Vandana Gupta, but she was unavailable to comment. 

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“On January 29, the girl reached us. We immediately approached the police station which falls under Gandhi Maidan area in Patna but our complaint was not registered by the police,” Veena Manvi, president of the NGO Mahila Vikas Manch, told Gaon Connection.  “The police said that they were not authorised to lodge a complaint. We were told that it’s a women-based matter, so mahila (women) police station would lodge the FIR (first information report) under Gardanibagh police station,” Manvi added.

“We also went to the mahila thana, which falls under the Gardanibagh area. The officials there only listened to our complaint but did not lodge an FIR,” she further added.

Gaon Connection approached the respective police stations to respond to the case but the police officials refused to provide any clarification. 

Aggrieved by the dismal response of the police authorities in responding to the victim’s allegations, the NGO head informed that the following day on January 30 they approached the Patna District Magistrate (DM) Chandra Shekhar Singh and have also submitted an application to him, however no action has been taken so far, said Manvi. 

When Gaon Connection approached the district magistrate’s office to get his reaction on the case, the officials refused access.

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On February 5, Gaon Connection again called up the DM but he was not available for a comment. 

“No wrongdoing,” says Director, Social Welfare Department

A day after the victim raised the issue with the NGO and the police authorities, senior officials from the social welfare department had visited the shelter home on January 30 and met the superintendent of the facility to know about the situation.

“We had conducted an investigation to review the situation but on the basis of three-month long CCTV footage and statements of some other inmates, we found no wrongdoing in the shelter premises,” Raj Kumar, Director, Directorate of Social Welfare, told Gaon Connection.

“However, the shelter home had 254 girls which exceeded the capacity of the shelter,” he said. 

Meanwhile, the February 2 court order reads: “…the Director of Social Welfare Department has conducted an inquiry and only on the basis of the CCTV footage installed in the After Care Home has come to the conclusion that the accusation made by the so-called victim is baseless and false. It does not appear that any inquiry was made with the victim girl and such opinion has been arrived at only by seeing the footage of CCTV camera.”

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The NGO working for justice for the victim also raised questions on the swift inquiry conducted by the officials from the social welfare department.

“Within 24 hours, they had provided a clean chit to the woman superintendent of the shelter house. Patna DM also made an irrelevant statement about the victim and termed her characterless and stated that she has a quarrelsome tendency. He accused us of doing politics,” Manvi, the NGO official said.

‘CCTVs had not been working’

Apart from the social welfare department, another investigation was carried out on January 30 by the Principal Magistrate of the Juvenile Justice Board [Abhimanyu Kumar] which reports to the Juvenile Justice Monitoring Committee. 

This monitoring committee was constituted by the Patna High Court in 2008 to monitor the implementation of the provisions that ensure justice for the juveniles in the state. The Juvenile Justice Monitoring Committee is chaired by Justice Ashutosh Kumar, and Justice Anjani Kumar Sharan and Justice Nawneet Kumar Pandey are its members. 

In its investigation, the principal magistrate, who visited the shelter home along with two social members, found that the CCTVs had not been working. This is a direct contradiction of the inquiry conducted by the social welfare department which is based on the CCTV footage.

“It does not appear that any inquiry was made with the victim girl and such opinion has been arrived at only by seeing the footage of CCTV camera,” the court said in its February 2 order.

Sexual abuse in shelter homes 

It is not for the first time that an allegation of sexual abuse at shelter homes has surfaced in Bihar.

A similar case of sexual abuse was reported from Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district in 2018 after an audit report by the Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) revealed rape and torture of the inmates. Medical examination had revealed that 34 of the 42 inmates were sexually abused.

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An FIR was registered and the case was subsequently handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). A total of 18 persons, including the main accused Brajesh Thakur were sentenced to life on January 20, 2020. 

Tejashwi Yadav, leader of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has targeted the state government on the issue and stated on February 3 that it is shocking that no action has been taken so far.

“It is a shocking incident which has come three-four days ago of a girl of Uttar Raksha Griha [aftercare home] in Patna accusing a top official there of sexual and physical torture. I’ll first inquire into the matter in detail and then make my statement on it”, Yadav was quoted.