In a shocking incident, three minor girls were sexually assaulted inside a state-run protective home cum orphanage in Allahabad. While sexual exploitation of minor girls had been going on in the home for quite sometime, the exposure was made on Thursday, five days after one of the victims was picked up for adoption by a family in Allahabad.
The culprit turned out to be 50-year-old Vidya Bhushan Ojha, a peon working in the him on contract for the past six years. Even though his antecedents were suspect, no action was ever initiated against him because of the patronage extended to him by a local politician.
He was arrested only five days after he was named by a 5- year-old girl as the man who had been sexually assaulting minor girls in the protective home. "He would have got away if it were not for the insistence by a young couple, who had taken the little girl in adoption from the home," said an official.
According to him, "The 5-year-old victim broke down narrating her tale of woe when her foster parents inquired about some blood stains they noticed on her undergarments. She named three older girls, who were shifted recently to another protective home above the age of 10 years as this one was meant only for girls below that age."
Three of the four girls including the 5-year-old were confirmed as rape victims, the official said. There are 42 minors in the juvenile home.
While the district authorities have ordered a departmental probe into the incident, the lady superintendent of the protective home has been placed under suspension.
Meanwhile, taking suo motto cognisance of the incident, the Allahabad high court on Friday ordered the state principal secretary (women and child welfare) to carry out a time-bound inquiry into the incident.
The court has also summoned the Allahabad district magistrate and district police chief to appear before the court on April 11.
