india

Updated: Oct 23, 2019 00:00 IST

Bettiah: Two inmates were traced to different parts of Bihar’s East Champaran hours after they escaped along with two other girls from a shelter home at Motihari on Monday, officials said.

Bihar’s child protection department assistant director (East Champaran), Pratibha Giri, said that prima facie it appears that the four girls tied their dupattas together to make something akin to a rope and escapes from the first floor of the shelter home, Balika Grih, located around 180 km from Patna. “We have alerted officials in [neighbouring] West Champaran and efforts are on to trace them,” Giri said.

Balika Grih superintendent, Madhu Kumari, said that the four took advantage of the staff shortage at the shelter to escape. She added that some staff were busy with official work while two of them were looking after three other inmates admitted to a hospital.

“While one of them was found in Motihari, the other girl was traced to Jeevdhara on Tuesday morning. Both of them belong to East Champaran. The other two belong to West Champaran and are still missing.”

Officials said that the four girls were brought to the shelter home, which has 40 inmates, between August 14 and October 15.

Abhinav Dubey, a local police officer, said that they have filed a First Information Report in the case and added that the missing girls will be traced soon.

Security around shelter homes in Bihar was tightened after a shelter home in Muzaffarpur hit the headlines in 2018 when a social audit found that over 30 girls were allegedly sexually abused there.