In a shocking incident, minor inmates of a tribal girls' hostel at Solan in Himachal Pradesh have been allegedly molested and harassed for more than a year by its in-charge, who has now been arrested.
Acting on a complaint of a 14 year-old tribal girl from Kalpa in Kinnaur district, a police team led by Superintendent of Police of Solan Prem Kumar Thakur raided the hostel at Salogra on Tuesday night and arrested hostel in-charge Pawan Goel.
Goel, 48, has been booked under Section 354 of IPC (molestation) and Section 3 of SC/ST Act, Additional Superintendent of Police Basher Singh Chauhan, who was part of the raid team said today. Salogra is five km from Solan district headquarters and about 40 km south-west of Shimla.
It has been alleged that several girl inmates of the hostel have been repeatedly sexually harassed by the warden for more than a year. The complainant girl is at present undergoing treatment at Indira Gandhi Medical College here for "depression" caused by the incident.
The matter came to light when the petition of the girl was taken to Additional Director General of Police (CID) I D Bhandari by a social activist Ajai Srivastava. Bhandari ordered the Solan police to take necessary action.
The hostel, 'Adivasi Balika Education Complex', having a capacity to house 30 girls, is being run in a rented building by the 'Bharatiya Adim Jaati Sewak Sangh', a voluntary organisation for tribal welfare founded by late Thakar Bappa, an associate of Mahatama Gandhi. It is funded by the Central government.
Srivastava said 21 poor tribal girls aged between 13 and 17 from Himachal Pradesh and Jharkhand are presently living in the hostel.
The girls are studying at Salogra government secondary school. Goel and his wife Kiran were running the hostel, the chairman of public welfare trust Umang foundation said.
In her petition to Srivastava, the complainant said the in-charge used to sexually harass the girls for over a year.
Even a complaint to the local head of the society by parents of one of the girls did not improve the situation.
She said Goel used to ask the girls to message his body and also used to send obscene SMS to some of them.
Surprisingly, Kiran did not stop Goel from indulging in illegal activities with the girls, the girl said in her petition.
A similar incident took place on March last year in the state. Three teachers, including a school principal, were arrested in Shimla on charges of sexual exploitation of six mentally challenged girls at a hostel run by NGO Prerna.
Demanding a commission for protection of child rights in Himachal Pradesh, Srivastava said if the state government did not initiate immediate corrective steps, the foundation would file a PIL in the High Court on the matter.
1 comment:
Now the warden Mr. Goel has been arrested or as it is reported. How long will it take before he can have the things swept under the rug. chase this type of people from the world --
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