Jamshedpur: Four persons including the manager, his wife, and the warden of a shelter home in Jharkhand's Jamshedpur were arrested in connection with physical exploitation and sexual molestation of minor girls from the Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh, informed the police on Wednesday.
The original complaint of sexual assault and harassment had also been made by two tribal girls from the home after they were rounded up by the Jharkhand police on reports that they had gone missing from the now infamous shelter.
A statement issued by Jamshedpur city superintendent of police (SP) Subhash Chandra Jat, said that the police have arrested the manager of Mother Teresa Welfare trust, Harpal Singh, his wife Pushpa Tirki, warden Geeta Devi and one more person in connection with the complaint given by minor girls living at the trust.
It stated that a few minor girls had complained about physical exploitation and sexual molestation, forced work, etc at the shelter home located at Telco in Jamshedpur.
It further stated that acting upon the complaint, an FIR was lodged and an investigation was launched.
The police informed that all efforts are being made to trace two minor inmates who went missing in the process of shifting to another shelter home. The girls had gone missing on late Friday evening when 40 children were being moved to Bal Kalyan Aashram, Gobarghausi in Jamshedpur after complaints of sexual assault and torture over a four-year period, by two other minor tribal girls from the shelter home at MTWT.
Mother Teresa Welfare Trust was being run for the last 10 years at Kharangajhar in Jamshedpur, officials said.
A first information report (FIR) was lodged against all the arrested acused and one Tony David with the Telco Police Station, Jamshedpur on June 6 on the complaints of two of the minor girls of MTWT who had accused sexual assault and torture by the director and others for about four years.
The FIR was lodged under various sections of the POCSO Act and all the accused were on the run after the FIR, the City SP said.
The arrests were made by a police team, constituted by Senior Superintendent of Police, Jamshedpur, Dr Tamil Vanan under the leadership of City SP Jat.
Jat said investigations are on in the case from all angles including land and building. An 11-member probe team, constituted by Deputy Commissioner, Jamshedpur, Suraj Kumar is also probing the matter.
