Rohtak shelter home horror: Three get life imprisonment
No inmate was allowed to go out of the complex even for a short while and hence tales of horror never went out; accused used her influence among cops, politicians
PANCHKULA: A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Panchkula sentenced three people to life imprisonment on Friday for sexually exploiting inmates at Apna Ghar, a shelter home for the destitute in Rohtak.
The shelter home inmates were subjected to sexual abuse, physical and mental exploitation and used as bonded labour in the infamous case, trial of which began in 2014.
Special CBI judge Jagdeep Singh awarded life term to main accused Jaswanti Devi, who was in-charge of the shelter home, her son-in-law Jai Bhagwan and driver Satish. Jaswanti’s brother, Jaswant, was awarded seven years’ imprisonment.
CBI senior counsel Jitender Kumar sought maximum punishment for these accused.
Jaswanti was sentenced to life term for abetting sexual abuse while other two life convicts were held guilty of rape and other charges.
Three other accused – Jaswanti’s daughter Sushma as well as employees Sheela and Veena – were let off with time served. Roshini, who had brought the child of the rape victim from Apna Ghar, and another employee, Ram Parkash Saini, were released on probation. Roshni is suffering from cancer.
The Apna Ghar case pertained to the sexual and physical abuse of inmates at the shelter, which included minors, adults and differently abled girls. The judge had convicted the accused on April 18 after taking various pieces of evidence and the victims’ testimony into account.
The accused faced multiple charges, including rape, gangrape, immoral trafficking, causing grievous hurt, molestation, performing abortions without consent, and cruelty towards minors.
The accused were arrested by the CBI in 2012, following a raid by the National Council for the Protection of Child Rights. Defence lawyers Vishal Narwana and Abhishek Rana said they would file an appeal in the high court against the verdict.
THE SHELTER’S INMATES, INCLUDING MINORS AND DISABLED GIRLS, WERE SUBJECTED TO SHOCKING SEXUAL AND PHYSICAL ABUSE
Apna Ghar in-charge Jaswanti Devi, 53, who was awarded life imprisonment on Friday along with two others for sexual exploitation of inmates, could manage to unleash a reign of terror and yet keep it secret by cutting the inmates from the outer world.
Besides, she used her influence among police officers and politicians to keep her misdeeds under wraps, something which the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) failed to probe.
Inspection reports of the National Council for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) that exposed her crime during its raid on the shelter home on May 9, 2012 revealed that all inmates in were scared of her.
No inmate was allowed to go out of the complex even for a short while and hence tales of horror never went out.
The children were not allowed to go to the neighbourhood day school. Due to lack of interaction with the outside world, the stories never went out.
The NCPCR report stated that most of the older inmates were either destitute or without any support, hence no one could gather courage to tell any visitor about the wrong happenings at the home.
The report added that police officers, especially SHO of Gandhi Camp, was reported to be a frequent visitor, and presuming Jaswanti’s police connections, the inmates felt too scary to inform anybody about their being wronged at the home.
Former NCPCR member Vinod Kumar Tikoo, who headed the raid at Apna Ghar on the night of May 9 in 2012, said that it was failure on the part of CBI not to prosecute any police official helping Jaswanti in her crime, despite several victims giving their statements in this regard.
Whenever a government official or celebrity visited the home, the presentation was manipulated in such a manner so that they did not get to interact with the children without being accompanied by Jaswanti, Jai Bhagwan or any other staff from the home, the NCPCR report said.
The report said the pictures of Jaswanti Devi with politicians and senior officials, which were hanging in her shelter home, showed that a lot of important people visited the centre. But before the visit of high profile people, the inmates were always threatened not to talk to any outsider about any punishments or complain on any other matter including food, clothes, education etc, it added.
Recalling the raid, Tikoo said that they kept their raid secret and informed top district officials of their visit just before reaching Rohtak. “Jaswanti came to know of about the visit before we came here.
However, she had a very less time to make cosmetic arrangements,” he said
SIT HEAD HAILS VERDICT
Advocate Anil Malhotra, who headed the high court-appointed special investigation team (SIT) and on whose report the case was handed over to the CBI, said the punishment was commensurate to the gravity of the heinous offences committed by the accused.
“The government machinery must carry out stringent checks to prevent such abuses of children in care homes,” Malhotra said.
Tikoo said that it was a satisfying verdict and surely create a deterrent but it should have been concluded much earlier so that victims involved in this case could not suffer mentally and physically during the long period of trial.