Four officials of Jamshedpur shelter home held for ‘sexual exploitation’

JAMSHEDPUR: Steel City police arrested four officials of the Mother Teresa Welfare Trust in connection to a case of an alleged sexual exploitation of inmates at the trust-run Child Care Institution (CCI) in Telco’s Kharangajhar.
Absconding since the case of sexual exploitation was lodged against five trust officials on June 6, four of the accused were nabbed by police from Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday and were brought to the city on transit remand in the early hours of Wednesday.
City SP Subhash Chandra Jat has said detailed interrogation of the accused will be done in connection with the case.
The four accused, Harpal Singh Thapar, who is the head of the trust, Pushpa Rani Tirkey, who is Thapar's wife and chairman of the district child welfare committee, Geeta Kaur, warden at the CCI, Aditya Singh, Geeta's son and staff at the centre, were caught from Mala in Singrauli, on the basis of their mobile phone location.
The fifth accused, Toni Singh, is at large. All five accused are facing charges under sections 354, 354(D), 323, 334 of IPC and under relevant sections of Pocso Act.
Notably, two girls, both 15 years of age, had fled from the CCI on June 5 but were caught hiding at their common friend's house in Birsanagar the next day. When police questioned the girls for fleeing the centre, they alleged that they ran off to save themselves from sexual exploitation at the centre.
The girls charged Harpal Singh of sexual exploitation and accused others of aiding him. They also alleged that children were not being taken care of properly at the centre. After the matter came to light, the district administration shifted the 40-odd children to a government-run CCI and sealed the care centre.
In the preliminary investigation, police found that funds meant for the welfare of the children were misused by care centre officials. The accused have been forwarded to jail.