Parents, guardians seek custody of girls
District administration officials do not allow them to meet the girls
LUCKNOW : Parents and guardians of four of the inmates rescued from shelter home in Deoria on Wednesday said they were not aware of the wrongdoings at the shelter home. The relatives reached the children’s home in Deoria, where the rescued inmates have been temporarily lodged, and demanded that the girls be handed over to them.
DEORIA: Parents and guardians of four of the inmates rescued from Maa Vindhyavasini Mahila and Balika Sanrakshan Grih in Deoria on Wednesday said they were not aware of the wrongdoings at the shelter home.
The relatives reached the children’s home in Deoria, where the rescued inmates have been temporarily lodged, and demanded that the girls be handed over to them. The district administration officials, however, did not allow them to meet the girls and asked them to move the court to get the custody of girls.
“The rescued girls will only be released on the direction of the court. We have advised all parents and guardians to approach the court to secure their release order,” said newly-appointed district magistrate of Deoria Amit Kishore. Officials said the claims of the parents/relatives of the inmates were being verified.
Relatives of two of the girls were from Deoria while the third was from Bettiah in Bihar.
The shelter home was being run for orphans/missing or minor girls recovered by the police.A woman, who claimed to be the step-mother of the 10-yearold girl who had escaped from the shelter home on Sunday and informed the police about the illegal activities at the shelter home, reached Deoria from her native place Bettiah in Bihar to seek custody of the girl. She said the girl went missing from her house in Bettiah from where she boarded a train and reached Gorakhpur.
The woman said she came to know that the government railway police (GRP) personnel found the girl at the railway station and took her to the shelter home. “I came to know about my daughter through newspaper reports. I have come here to take her home with me,” she said.
A woman, claiming to be the aunt of another girl, said she regretted the day when she left the girl at the shelter home.
“I left her here after her father died and her mother had to be admitted to a mental asylum. I am a mother of five. We were not able to bring her up and sent her here thinking she would get proper care. I regret the decision,” she said. “I came to know through news that wrong things were going on at the shelter home. I don’t want our girl to face all this. I want to take her home,” she added.
The woman said she used to meet her niece at the shelter home frequently. “She sometimes complained that ‘madam’ (manager Girija Tripathi) shouted at her but never told me about any illegal activities,” she said. A man, in his late 50s, also reached the children’s home looking for his 15-year-old daughter. “My daughter was abducted by two men of my village. Police sent her to the shelter home on July 25 after an FIR was lodged. I am here to take my daughter home,” he said. He added that the family had also approached the court for the custody of the girl.
A 56-year-old resident of Deoria who had admitted two orphaned girls to the shelter home said he was their guardian and had come to inquire about their safety. “The girls are 11 and 8 years’ old respectively. They use to live with their widowed mother who died of tuberculosis about a year ago. I got the girls admitted to the shelter home. The girls also have a six-year-old brother who stays in the government shelter home for boys,” he said. The man was allowed to meet the boy but was not permitted to see the girls. “I am their guardian but I am unable to adopt them. I am a poor man. I will request senior officials to shift the girls to a government shelter home,” he added.