Patna: Police in Muzaffarpur have detained four women and two office-bearers of a non-government organisation for questioning in a sexual exploitation case.
The complaint was lodged by an official of the district child protection unit on Thursday.
Muzaffarpur senior superintendent of police (SSP) Harpreet Kaur on Saturday said a special investigation team (SIT), led by the city superintendent of police Upendra Verma and deputy superintendent of police (town) Mukul Ranjan, has been set up to verify the allegations levelled against the accused. "Six suspects have been detained for interrogation," she said.
The SSP said the district child protection unit's assistant director, Divesh Kumar Sharma, lodged an FIR with the Woman police station. He alleged that the girls living at a rehabilitation centre for minor girls - run by NGO Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti on Sahu Road in the town - were being sexually abused. The centre is funded by the social welfare department.
The complaint was based on a social audit report conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. The TISS, in its report, revealed that the girls of the Muzaffarpur unit had complained to the audit team that they were sexually assaulted.
SSP Kaur said the case was lodged under sections 376 (rape), 120 (criminal conspiracy) and 34 of the IPC besides sections 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, 2012. "The SIT is collecting evidences to corroborate the victims' allegations," she told The Telegraph over phone.
An investigating officer said that the centre had been sealed and the girls shifted to Patna and Madhubani. "The statement of the victims of sexual assault will be recorded before a judicial magistrate and then sent for medical examination," the officer said.
The station house officer (SSP) of Muzaffarpur Woman police station, Jyoti Kumari, said the social audit report of the TISS pointed out that the centre was running in highly objectionable manner along with grave instances of violence that was reported by the inmates.
Muzaffarpur district magistrate Mohammad Sohail said the culprits wouldn't be spared. "The case is being probed by the police," he added.
Social welfare minister Manju Verma said the NGO would be blacklisted if the allegations against it were found to be true. The centre has been sealed and the inmates shifted to other centres, she said.
She said that the centre provided shelter to the girls who fled from homes, unable to trace their families due to mental condition or abandoned by their parents.
Sources said the social security directorate and child welfare committee were responsible to look after the centres.
Authoritative sources said though the TISS report was sent earlier, the social welfare department swung into action only after the murder of district welfare officer of Sitamarhi Shubh Narain Dutt on Thursday night.
