Bhubaneswar, March 15: A 16-year-old boy from Bangladesh today accused an official of a shelter home at Jatni of assaulting him and other inmates.

The boy is believed to have landed in the state while being trafficked from the neighbouring country four years ago. The teen, who had been staying in the government-recognised shelter home for the past three years, made the allegations with the Child Welfare Committee, Puri.Chairperson of the Puri child welfare committee Sidharth Ray has written to the state government requesting a probe into the boy's allegations of assault and harassment.

"The boy was rescued from Puri railway station on March 8. After counselling for six days by the committee officials, he narrated his ordeal. Considering the grievous allegations, we have requested the state government to take immediate action," said Ray.

Ray said the minor, during his counselling, alleged that one of the officials of the shelter home at Jatni had assaulted him physically - which made him lame.

"The boy also alleged the official of physically assaulting girl inmates of the shelter home. The victim had problems in walking when he was rescued from Puri railway station," said Ray.

On the other hand, the Child Welfare Committee, Khurda, which had initially rescued the boy from Bhubaneswar and admitted him to the shelter home at Jatni, denied the allegations. "We have gone through the CCTV footage of the shelter home and found the boy escaping through a skylight by placing two iron trunks.

The boy had earlier escaped from another shelter home. Despite all this, we are trying to verify the allegations levelled by the minor," said member of the Khurda committee Benudhar Senapati. While the Puri committee raised its fingers at their counterpart regarding expatriation of the minor, their Khurda committee officials said they had written to the state government thrice requesting them to send the boy to Bangladesh.

"The process of expatriation is not so easy, and it takes time. The delay is attributed to the dillydallying approach in correspondence from the neighbouring country. The Puri committee should immediately handover the boy to us," said a member of the Child Welfare Committee, Khurda.