GORAKHPUR: Girija Tripathi, the prime accused in the Deoria shelter home sex racket, rose from being housewife to a humble factory worker who would stitch to earn some extra bucks to a high-profile local celebrity who would flaunt her connections to run a shelter home business that stretches from Deoria to Gorakhpur . Before being arrested for allegedly running a sex racket in the garb of a shelter home run by her NGO Ma Vaindhyavasini Mahila Prashikshan Evum Seva Sansthan, she was identified as a leading light of women and child rights who rubbed shoulders with the powerful.

Girija Tripathi’s fall from grace after her arrest on Sunday has shocked this UP town where she ran a chain of shelter homes — from a child protection centre to old age homes. She built an “empire” culminating in shelter homes worth crores over the past 25 years. In 1993, she had got her NGO registered as an organisation running a chit fund business. She ran her homes without any hindrance despite her NGO being blacklisted in June 2017.

It is a remarkable journey for a woman, now in her late 50s, who came from a humble family in the district’s Rupai village and married Mohan Tripathi, who used to work at Bhatni sugar mill. However, in the early ’90s, when the mill closed down, Mohan lost his job and the family moved to Deoria. The shift to the district headquarters gave Girija an opportunity to expand her stitiching business.

Her NGO also ran literacy camps in Deoria and its neighbouring districts. However, the real push came around 15 years ago when her NGO got a contract from the state government to run a short-stay protection home for girls and women. Girija currently has three shelter homes in Deoria and one old age home each in Gorakhpur and Salempur.

Besides, she was also running an adoption centre which would often have clients from abroad. The women’s protection home raided on Sunday was given a contract by the women and child welfare department in 2010. According to a police official, she purchased huge tract of lands in Rajla Bazaar and Usra Bazaar. On Rajla Bazaar land, she raised a two-storey building, and was in the process of starting an old-age home on the Usra Bazaar land.

Girija was so confident of her clout that she didn’t allow the district probation office team to enter her shelter home which they had gone to check on July 30. Although it invited an FIR, no action was taken against her and police acted only when a 12-year-old whistleblower ran away from her shelter home to approach the local police.

