New Delhi, August 28: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked all states to complete the audit of the shelter homes in their respective states and instructed District Magistrates (DMs)to finalise the report by September 15. Justice Madan Bhimrao Lokur of the the Supreme Court (SC) said in his observation that it seems no one is interested in monitoring conditions in shelter homes.

The Supreme Court instruction to the states comes in the wake of cases of rape and disappearance from shelter homes from various states, especially the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case. The scandal came to light two months ago when an FIR was lodged by the social welfare department following a social audit report submitted by Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences which mentioned sexual abuse of girls lodged at the Muzaffarpur shelter home.

The Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case involved alleged mental, physical exploitation and rape of at least 34 minor girls at the shelter home run by Brajesh Thakur, the main accused in the case. The local police has arrested 10 persons in the case including Thakur. Bihar's former social welfare minister Manju Verma is also an accused in the case. The CBI has taken over the probe and submitted a progress report to the Patna High Court on Monday, August 26.

Just a month after the outrage over the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case in Bihar, another shelter home abuse case came to public light after a girl managed to run away from the Deoria shelter home in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh and informed police about the wrongdoing at the shelter home.

“They were given food and sweets before they were taken away,” said the girl who helped the state police uncover an alleged sex racket was running rampant at a shelter home in Deoria, Uttar Pradesh. The girl also claimed that the children who were taken away by the authorities were sent abroad to Spain.

The girl who happens to be one of the 24 inmates rescued from a shelter home in Deoria shared horrific details; the children had to face there. She said, “Four people came and took a 5-year-old boy in December, last year, and the 8-year-old twin sisters in March, earlier this year.”

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 28, 2018 04:09 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).