After enduring the ordeal of sexual harassment in a Muzaffarpur shelter home, one among the 14 girls, who were rescued and shifted to a NGO in Madhubani has gone missing.
The in-charge of the NGO in Madhubani, Pragya Bharti, attributed the loss to security lapse.
ANI reported her as saying, “In our NGO, we have 10 beds in the special unit. We earlier had 11 children. When those 14 children came, the authorities told me that they would be shifted later and demanded me to keep them. I didn’t have the capacity to accommodate 20-25 children, but due to pressure from the government, I kept the children. The children were not shifted after that. I did my best to protect them.”
“The condition of those 14 girls was not good. So, we wrote a letter to the district administration demanding security. There were four people who were overseeing the security. We had adequate security but somehow a girl went missing due to security lapse or conspiracy. This case is being given a political colour. This should not be made into a political issue at all,” she added.
Bharti informed that she immediately registered a complaint with the police and also submitted copies of the CCTV footage for further investigation. She also dismissed rumours of her organization being involved in malicious activities.
On being asked whether the police or the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) approached her in connection to the case, Bharti replied that there was no questioning done.
Bharti was even questioned about the condition of the 14 girls to which she replied, “I spoke to them. They were physically weak. After conducting counselling sessions, they started talking. There are some girls who are recovering right now.”
The incident of the prolonged sexual abuse came to light on July 24 when 11 employees of the shelter home in Muzaffarpur were arrested for allegedly sexually harassing the girls.
The police raided the vicinity after receiving information and rescued 44 girls when it also emerged that the shelter home was run by Brajesh Thakur.
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