Ranchi, June 13: Two more minor girls went missing after children from a shelter home in East Singhbhum district, were shifted to another place late Friday evening by the administration after allegations of sexual assaults there, surfaced.
A search is on to locate the missing girls, a top official said on Sunday.
The original complaint of sexual assault and harrasment had also been made by two tribal girls from the home after they were rounded up by the Jharkhand police on reports that they had gone missing from the now infamous shelter.
Forty children, all minor barring two, were moved to Bal Kalyan Aashram, Gobarghausi in Jamshedpur after complaints of sexual assault and torture over a four-year period, by two other minor tribal girls from the shelter home at Mother Teresa Welfare Trust (MTWT).
The MTWT is run by a local NGO, which has no connections with the Sisters of Charity, the organisation founded by St Teresa, who was known as Mother Teresa, before canonisation.
“Child Welfare Committee found that there are now only 38 children at the new shelter home where the children were shifted. Two minor girls aged about 17 years are missing. We are trying to located them,” Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), East Singhbhum, Dr M Tamil Vanan told PTI.
The District Social Welfare Officer, Satya Thakur had on Thursday said 40 children in the government registered MTWT, including 24 girls and 16 boys, all of whom are below 18 years barring a girl and a boy each of 20 years, will be shifted to Bal Kalyan home.
The SSP said the hunt to nab the accused in the FIR, including Director of MTWT, Harpal Singh Thapar, his wife Pushpa Rani Tirkey, Warden Gita Singh, her son Aditya Singh and one more person on June 6, was continuing.
Tirkey, wife of Director, MTWT, was also chairperson of the East Singhbhum district child welfare committee (CWC). Mother Teresa Welfare Trust was being run for the last 10 years at Kharangajhar, an official said.
A Delhi Court had last year convicted 19 persons, including main accused Brajesh Thakur, in connection with sexual and physical assault of girls at a shelter home in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district. (PTI)
