Pratapgarh, August 9: After reports of sexual assault in Deoria and Muzaffarpur shelter homes, two more shelter homes in Uttar Pradesh’s Pratnagarh have come under a scanner. At least 26 women were reportedly found missing from the two women’s shelter homes run by NGOs in the district. District Magistrate (DM) Shambhu Kumar paid a surprise visit to the shelter homes on Wednesday and found most women were missing.

According to a report published in Hindustan Times, during an inspection of a shelter home at Achalpur, a team headed by the DM found that 12 women were not present. After the inspection, Kumar said, “We asked management about the women not present, they said in the afternoon women go out for work. We will visit in the night as well to verify.”  The shelter home authorities did not provide the account register, and even CCTV camera were not installed there.

According to the report, the team then inspected Swadhar Jagriti Grih at Ashtbhuja Nagar where 14 of the 17 women registered were not present during the inspection.  The register at the shelter home had no photographs of the women living there.

After 24 girls rescued from a shelter home in Deoria on Sunday, the Uttar Pradesh government undertaken a program to inspect all the shelter homes in the state. One of the girls escaped from the shelter home in Deoria and informed the police about the alleged sexual exploitation. The Deoria Police on Sunday arrested a couple that manages the shelter home and rescued the girls.

In another horrific incident, on July 28, the Bihar police confirmed that 34 minor girls were raped inside a shelter home in Muzaffarpur. Initially, medical examinations of 42 girls revealed that 29 of them were raped. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has taken over the probe from the Muzaffarpur Police, and the main accused Brajesh Thakur is in the jail.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 09, 2018 10:28 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).