Deposition by children from the orphanage could become crucial evidence in the case pertaining to sexual assault in a protection home at Ameenpur, registered over a month and a half ago.
The victim of sexual assault, a 14-year-old girl, died last month, while undergoing treatment at Niloufer Hospital.
While the forensic science laboratory report is awaited to ascertain the exact cause of the girl’s death, it is reliably learnt that a few children rescued from the ‘Maruthi Orphanage’ deposed before the Judicial Magistrate of Sangareddy, confirming sexual assault on the girl.
Officials hope that the statements could be a key evidence against the accused — a donor who frequented the home — and two caretakers. Besides, the committee constituted by the Commissioner, Women Development and Child Welfare for probing the case is learnt to have recorded corroborative evidence that confirms sexual assault. The committee, with members drawn from the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, WD &CW, and the Police department, has submitted its preliminary report to the commissioner. Final report will be prepared once the forensic test report arrives.
Commissioner, WD & CD, D. Divya has reportedly written to the government, seeking appointment of a special public prosecutor to argue the case.
The girl’s statement had already been recorded twice, once by the Child Welfare Committee of Rangareddy district, and then by the SCPCR in the government home at Nimboli Adda where the girl was given shelter after a police complaint was filed.
In her statement, the girl pointed finger at primary accused Venugopal Reddy, who visited the home often as “donor”, and caretaker of the home Ch.Vijaya.
The girl said she would be given cool drink and sexually assaulted after she lost consciousness. She would be woken up by other girls in the orphanage, to find herself naked in bed on fifth floor of the building housing the home.
She was abruptly sent away from the home in April this year, on the pretext of pandemic spread. However, family members who took her home found that she was extremely sick, and, upon repeated entreaties, the girl confided in them. After a police complaint was registered, the girl was referred to the government-run protection home and when the situation worsened, she was taken to Niloufer Hospital, where she breathed her last.
The orphanage was seized, and all other children there were rescued and shifted first to various private homes functioning under the WD&CW department, and later to the State Home premises in Yousufguda.