HC report exposes child abuse in Rohtak shelter home

Saurabh Malik/TNS

Chandigarh, June 13

When the inmates at Rohtak shelter home were given a white powder, they had no way of knowing that it was not tooth powder. It was only when they were forced into sexual encounters at a guest house near the Rohtak bus stand did they realise that the white dust was not what they thought it was.

This and many more startling facts about abuse by policemen, torture and exploitation of minors in Rohtaks shelter home have come out in a damning report submitted to the Punjab and Haryana High Court this morning.

The victims were abused by cops, outsiders, and others; were told to garland the men they went out with; and made to undergo abortions by inserting foreign objects in private parts.

On Holi, colour was put on their private parts; and their children were sold off in the garb of abortion. The victims were kept naked for long periods and photographed. They were even forced to perform yoga - naked. Some elderly girls were taken away at night for dancing and immoral purposes. Children as young as five complained of perverse sexual abuse in form of oral sex.

The victims were even taken to temples and forced to commit thefts. Heads were shaved for the wrongs committed by them. The medical report of one victim suggested she was HIV-infected.

The damning report, submitted by two members of a commission appointed by the high court, is based on the interviews of 101 inmates - now putting up in different centres.

For the purpose, the commission visited 12 centres. A probe by the CBI or any other independent agency has now been recommended by the two members.

At Bal Kunj, Chhachhroli, in Yamunanagar, 12 children, shifted from the shelter Apna Ghar in Rohtak narrated tales of being physically abused, brutally beaten, often kept naked, made to consume liquor and regularly work as farm labourers by Jaswanti, who ran Apna Ghar".

They were made to go without food for two to three days, forced to sweep the premises, wash utensils and do other menial work". Two "elderly" girls complained that they were taken to hotel rooms where policemen used to "sexually abuse them, which was repulsive, painful and agonising".

Things were hardly any better at Nari Niketan in Karnal. Five girls there alleged they were sexually molested and made to suffer abortions by giving tablets and inserting foreign objects into private parts.

The stories narrated by the inmates at Mother Teresas Missionaries of Charity at Panipat were even more appalling. The team found frozen, blank expressions, presumably due to addiction to the white powder.

The women complained of sexual molestation at the hands of Jaswantis son-in-law Jai Bhagwan, driver Satish, policemen and other outsiders.

The boys, on birth, were sold to people in the garb of adoption. Girls were reared for ultimately using them for immoral purposes.

At Swadhar Shelter Home in Gurgaon, the victims said they were forced to consume liquor before sex. They were photographed naked and Satish, Jai Bhagwan and the police used to have sex with them. Jai Bhagwan and Satish videographed each other while doing sex.

At Sahara Ashram in Rohtak, 35-year-old inconsolable Ramwati said Jaswanti inserted scissors into her private parts after she complained of her baby being sold off.

As the report was placed before a vacation Bench, the High Court questioned the rationale behind filing the report without taking the other two members of the committee into confidence.

The vacation Bench headed by Justice LN Mittal also asked one of the members about what the "tearing hurry" was as the deadline given by the high court to submit the report was July 11.