The 22-year-old woman is said to be unable to relate the events leading to her pregnancy but is learnt to have taken the name of two different men. (Representational)
An inquiry has been ordered by the Jalandhar district administration into an incident of suspected wrongdoing by managers of a well-known home for the homeless and people with mental disabilities in which those in charge are alleged to have married off a woman inmate to a man in the home after detecting that she was pregnant. Both the man and woman have severe mental disabilities.
Deputy Commissioner (DC) Jalandhar, Varinder Sharma, constituted a six-member inquiry committee headed by Sub Divisional Magistrate, Shahkot, Navneet Kaur Bal, with directions to submit the inquiry report of the incident at Pingla Ghar in Jalandhar within three days. The SDM visited Pingla Ghar on Tuesday evening and took into her possession the 22-year-old woman’s medical records.
The 22-year-old woman is said to be unable to relate the events leading to her pregnancy but is learnt to have taken the name of two different men. The officials are then alleged to have got her married to one of the two, who is from Darbhanga in Bihar. He has been living at the Pingla Ghar for the past 10 years. He has a mental disability and also a vision-related problem.
The identity of the other man is not known, but the haste with which the marriage was conducted has raised an alarm. Pingla Ghar is equipped with three dozen CCTV cameras. Only women employees are allowed to enter the women’s ward. Deputy Commissioner Varinder Sharma said he has formed a six-member team including SDM Bal, District Programme officer Narinder Singh, Child Protection Officer Avneet Kaur, Legal Protection officer Sandip Kumar, SMO Kulwinder Kaur and Inspector Parveen Kumari. He said that a regular team from district administration will visit Pingla Ghar and interact with the inmates.
Manager of Pingla Ghar Gurpreet Singh, could not be contacted. The Pingla Ghar Jalandhar was set up in 1951 to provide food, shelter, clothes, protection and medical treatment to the homeless, destitute, abandoned, mentally retarded and handicapped.