Allahabad HC orders government to take security measures for shelter homes

ALLAHABAD: The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday ordered the state government to provide for basic security infrastructure, including installation of CCTV cameras at shelter homes across the state, for safety of inmates.

Chief Justice DB Bhosale and Justice Yashwant Varma ordered to take basic safety measures, dismissing the Women Welfare Department's contention that the government cannot install CCTV cameras at shelter homes for want of funds.

"How can the government say it cannot comply with the statutory guidelines for protection of children in shelter homes because of lack of funds?" the bench shot back at the counsel on his submission.

The bench ordered the government to prepare a time line for taking various steps for safety and security of the inmates at shelter homes and apprise it of the time frame by the next date of hearing.

In an affidavit to the court, Additional Advocate General Manish Goel, meanwhile, said disciplinary actions have been initiated against 35 police officers, who sent 121 girls to Deoria shelter home despite knowing that its license had been cancelled by the government.

The court had on August 8 taken suo motu cognizance of the media reports on Deoria shelter home case involving sexual exploitations of its inmates and had said it would monitor the probe into the alleged sex racket being run from there.

The police had raided Deoria shelter home on August 5 after a minor girl escaped from there and apprised police of sexual exploitations of its inmates.

The police subsequently raided the shelter home and rescued 24 inmates from there.