Four minor girls escape from Patna shelter home

PATNA: Four minor girls escaped from ‘Asha Kiran’, a government-funded shelter home on the Notre Dame Academy premises under the Pataliputra police station area in the city, Saturday midnight. The girls pulled down the iron window grill on the first floor of the four-storey building and made a rope of clothes to make good their escape despite the shelter having several CCTV cameras and guards.

This is the third incident when the inmates of any government-funded shelter home in Patna escaped. The ordeal of girls living in various shelter homes in the state was highlighted in the TISS (Mumbai) social report. The investigation into the government-funded Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case in May this year revealed how several girl inmates were sexually and physically abused there over a period of time.

Patna SSP Manu Maharaaj said the girls, between 14 and 17 years, used a screwdriver to remove the iron window grill. “One of the girls was brought from Mumbai on October 14 while another was shifted from children home at Ara in Bhojpur on November 4. The other two were brought by railway authorities on November 6,” he said.

As per information on the website www.sistersofnotredamepatna.org, the shelter home was formally inaugurated on May 18 this year.

The SSP said Sister Alka runs the shelter home where 44 girls, including the four, were living. “The girl from Mumbai is a native of Araria while one from Ara belongs to Buxar. The address of the other two is yet not known,” he said.

The SSP said the shelter home authorities were being interrogated to know how the girls got the screwdriver. He said their movement was captured in the CCTV cameras installed on the premises.

This reporter was not allowed by the guards to enter the premises and talk to any shelter home authorities. Child welfare committee assistant director (Patna) Dilip Kumar Kamat could not be contacted as his official cellphone number was switched off and he did not pick up the call on his private phone number. Both the numbers are given on the state social welfare department website.