24 girls rescued from illegal shelter home in UP's Deoria

Deoria (Uttar Pradesh): The Deoria Police raided a shelter home here on Sunday and rescued 24 girls. Police also arrested a couple who were managers at the shelter home.

Police came into action after a girl from the shelter home managed to escape and narrated the condition of children residing in it.

Girl told police that they were treated like servants inside the shelter home.

Taking swift action into the matter, the UP government transferred Deoria District Magistrate Sujit Kumar. It may be mentioned that the state government had asked to shut down the shelter home a year ago but the DM did not take any action.

UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has also ordered all the DMs across the state to inspect all the shelter homes in their districts and submit a detailed report within 12 hours. The DMs who will not obey the orders may face stringent action.

Addressing the media, Superintendent of Police, Rohan P Kanay said, "Government had cancelled affiliation of child shelter home, girl shelter home and reformation home run by Ma Vidhvasini Women training and Social Service society. Even then girls, children and women were staying their illegally."

He further informed that the institution's director Girija Tripathi and her husband have been arrested.

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UP CM has also ordered to form a probe committee of Additional Chief Secretary Women's Welfare Renuka Kumar and Additional DGP (Women's Helpline) Anju Gupta. Both the investigating officers have been sent to Deoria through chopper. They will submit their report by August 7 and will also get help from Gorakhpur Police Commissioner in the probe.

Deoria District Probation Officer (DPO) Abhishek Pandey has also been suspended and action has also been initiated against former DPOs Neeraj Kumar and Anoop Singh.

In a similar incident, employees of a shelter home in Muzaffarpur district in Bihar were arrested last month for allegedly sexually harassing the girls there.

On receiving information, the police raided the vicinity and rescued 44 girls.