Patna care home superintendent held for allegedly allowing exploitation of girls
Superintendent of a Patna-based government care institution was arrested and sent to judicial custody on Saturday for allegedly allowing physical and mental exploitation of the girls at the remand home located at Gai Ghaat in Bihar’s Capital city.
The superintendent, Vandana Gupta, was questioned on Saturday for hours at the women’s police station in the city and after the interrogation she was produced before the court and was later sent to judicial custody.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the police had been investigating the case for the last six months, collecting evidence related to the charges made against the remand home superintendent and got her arrested on Saturday.
In January this year, an inmate of the Gai Ghat remand home managed to escape and tried to lodge complaints against the remand home superintendent, but was refused. Later, another inmate from the home also made serious charges against the home superintendent. But their complaints got registered at women police stations only when the Patna high court took suo motto cognizance of the case on February 3 this year.
“Earlier, efforts seem to have been made to dismiss the matter. The social welfare department formed an inquiry team which questioned the home inmates on various points. But in the final report of the inquiry team, while the remand home superintendent was given a clean chit, the girls who had tried to get the matter out, were declared as mentally unstable and were accused of lying, triggering a quarrel with other inmates and creating nuisance,” Minu Kumar, a lawyer who has been handling the case, said.
The report of the social welfare department’s inquiry team was shocking, she added.
“Things improved only when the court took suo motto cognisance of the case and snubbed social welfare department for making observations only on the basis of video footage,” the lawyer said.
Later the police set up the SIT to handle the case, she added.
“The SIT had been trying to collect evidence related to the charges made against the superintendent and finally got her arrested and sent to judicial custody on Saturday,” Minu Kumar added.
Anita Kumari,a social activist from All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA) said that many women organisations had raised their voices against the alleged sexual exploitation of girls at Gai Ghat remand home.” This incident will pave the way for justice for the girls,” she added.