Search on for 18 Deoria girls amid trafficking fears

DEORIA: Uttar Pradesh Police and the Deoria district administration expanded their search for 18 girls reported missing from a shelter home for women that has come under a cloud over allegation of sexual exploitation of its residents, even as the issue resonated in Parliament on Tuesday.

Two administrative officers accompanied by four police teams searched every room of the two-storey Maa Vindhyavasini Mahila aur Balika Sanrakshan Griha for documents that could lead to more information about the missing girls.

Deoria additional district magistrate (ADM) Sitaram Gupta said they were focusing on ascertaining the number of residents who lived at the shelter home, to better identify the ones missing. “The regular entry register, which contains updated information about the total number of girls, is being looked into with the hope of getting more information,” the ADM said.

A second official privy to the investigation said documents weighing more than 20kg had been recovered.

The alleged sexual exploitation was unearthed Sunday night after a 10-year-old girl escaped the home by scaling a wall and informed the police. “The district administration has committed negligence in taking action against the management of the shelter home,” state women and child welfare minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi said. Five people, including the couple who ran the shelter, Girija and Mohan Tripathi, have been arrested. Police have rescued 24 women and girls. The residents have said they were beaten, sexually harassed and in some cases, forcibly married off to men twice their age, according to women counsellors they spoke to. They also complained that some residents were sent abroad by unidentified men and women who came to the shelter and took away the children. “Two girls have made such claims. Police probe is on and soon things will be clear further,” superintendent of police Rohan P Kanay had said.