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“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.

Late in the evening, the state government recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation probe in the case. “Till the CBI takes over the case, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been constituted under the chairmanship of ADG (Crime) to collect the evidences,” chief minister Yogi Adityanath said.

In Parliament, opposition parties raised concern over the allegations, which come just weeks after a similar incident at a government-funded shelter home in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur, where more than 30 girls were allegedly sexually abused for months.

“No culprit will escape action”, home minister Rajnath Singh said, describing such incidents as unfortunate, sad and shameful. Soon after the home minister’s response, members of the Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Congress and Trinamool Congress staged a walkout.

The shelter home lost its licence in 2017 over irregularities but continued to function. Joshi said the district administration ignored several missives to raid the shelter home and shift the residents.

“The administration has committed negligence in taking action. Strict action would be taken against the officers. Police have been directed to find the missing girls,” she said.

(With inputs from Lucknow and New Delhi)