By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The police along with Child Line rescued six children from New Life Home, a hostel at Nongrimmaw in Laitumkhrah here on Saturday, after it was alleged that the owner of this hostel, Reverend Sangkunga Miller had been sexually abusing the minor children staying there.
Reverend Miller was arrested on late Friday night but was subsequently admitted to the Civil Hospital after he fell ill all of a sudden.
The allegations came to fore after two boys escaped from the hostel and reported the matter to the CSWO (Agnes) which in turn apprised the police and an FIR was filed against the owner of the Home.
According to the FIR, Reverend Miller had brought these children, aged between 7-17 years, from the poor families living in villages along the Assam-Meghalaya border and they were made to do all the chores of the hostel.
Apart from this, it was also alleged that a 15-year-old girl, who was a hosteller, was raped in 2010 by the Reverend in his house and the matter was only disclosed by the victim on Friday.
She also mentioned that a few of her friends who lived in the hostel had shared similar stories stating that they too were sexually abused by the Reverend.
Interestingly, besides running a hostel and a school, the Reverend also runs a church christened New Life Church for a few years now.
According to sources, Reverend Miller has been running the hostel with help of foreign sponsors in the name of the orphans even as these children faced exploitation at his hands. It was also alleged that the Reverend would misuse the money donated by the foreigners and purchase second hand clothes for the children.
When contacted, one of the foreign sponsors told The Shillong Times here on Saturday that though she had heard of the Reverend Miller’s corrupt practices as far as money is concerned, she did not believe in it. “It was only after continuous complaints started coming from all sources that we finally decided to stop donating to the school since June this year”, she said.
Meanwhile, taking strong cognizance of the incident, CSWO president Agnes Kharshiing said that if immediate action is not taken against the accused, more children will become victims of such offenders.
Reverend Miller was not available for comments since he was hospitalized.