CHANDIGARH: In the infamous
Apna Ghar case, the special
CBI court Panchkula on Wednesday convicted
Jaswanti Devi, the woman who ran the shelter home in which girls were sexually exploited, and eight other accused.
The quantum of sentence would be pronounced on April 24.
The special CBI judge,
Jagdeep Singh has also hold Jaswanti’s daughter Sushma alias Simmi, brother Jaswant Singh, son-in-law Jai Bhagwan, cousin Sheela and two other accused Veena and Satish guilty.
In August 2012, CBI had charged the accused under various sections of the IPC including 313 (abortion carried out forcibly/without consent), 120-B (conspiracy), 323 (criminal assault), 374 (forcing a person to indulge in labour work unlawfully), 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation).
On May 9, 2012 following tip off by three girls who had escaped from
Apna Ghar and reached Delhi, the National Commission for Protection of Child Right (NCPCR) team had raided the Rohtak shelter home and found sexual exploitation of inmates in the hands of its caretaker Jaswanti and others.
Those who have been convicted including Jaswanti, her brother Jaswant, daughter Simmi, cousin sister Sheila, son in law Jai Bhagwan, driver Satish and Veena, a counselor are in jail and had been booked under various sections of IPC,
Labour Bondage Act and Immoral Trafficking Act. All the accused are presently lodged in jail. Initially, the matter was probed by a special investigation team (SIT) of Haryana police but later the government had handed over the matter to CBI for investigation.
