A day after a Bihar shelter came in national spotlight over rape and torture of at least 29 girls and alleged murder of a minor, more chilling details have emerged from the horror home.
The perpetrators forced few of the girls, aged between seven and 17, at Balika Grih in Muzaffarpur district to go for abortion, sources privy to the investigation told DNA.
Of the 42 girls housed at the home, run by NGO Seva Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti, medical tests so far have confirmed sexual assault on 29, while more reports are awaited.
"At least three or four of the girls told us that they had got pregnant during their stay and were forced to undergo an abortion," said a source at Patna Medical College and Hospital, where the victims underwent examinations.
The minor had scars on their private parts which may have been caused by sharp objects, said the source. "So we cannot rule out that they were forced to abort."
Recounting their horrors in the statements they have made before the magistrate under Section 164, most of the girls said they were repeatedly raped by the owner of the NGO Brajesh Thakur, a local strongman and small-time journalist. Some of the girls said they were tortured, drugged and raped almost every day.
A 7-year-old girl said she was assaulted by "Brajesh sir, Neha ma'am and Kiran ma'am". Another seven-year-old speech impaired girl, who has several injury marks on her hands, was repeatedly raped and tortured at the shelter, said sources.
A 10-year-old child has alleged that she was often drugged before being raped. In her statement, she has said that her private parts used to pain when she regained consciousness. "She has also alleged that the entire staff of the shelter home were in connivance with the owner and were aware of all the wrong deeds going on there," said sources.
Another 10-year-old girl narrated a similar ordeal of being drugged and raped almost every day and said that "Kiran aunty and Chanda ma'am" used to tell her about the "bad deeds" that had been done to her. A 15-year-old teen has named Brajesh Thakur as her tormentor.
Three girls had alleged that one inmate was murdered and buried on the campus prompting the police to dig up the ground in search of the body on Monday. However, nothing was found immediately.
The girls, now put up at shelters in Patna, Mokama and Madhubani, are in severe mental trauma and medical experts from All India Institute of Medical Sciences-Delhi and Bengaluru have been called for their counselling and therapy, a police source said.
The source added, "Some of them have shown very aggressive behaviour. It may be because of the repeated assault and the doctors are trying to help them recover."
The shelter home had entered into an agreement with Social Welfare Department, Bihar on October 24, 2013, and commenced its operations on November 1 the same year. According to its records, altogether 471 girls have stayed there at some point of time, of which four ran away and three died. An investigating officer said they are trying to find out these "missing" girls too.
A case was registered in May after the Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences informed the state government about the unspeakable brutalities inflicted on the girls. "Ten of the 11 named accused have been arrested and a charge sheet will be filed shortly," said Muzaffarpur SSP Harpreet Kaur.
