Girls go missing from juvenile home
5 Jun 2012 1:46 AM GMT
A four-member team of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights [NCPCR] on Monday visited an observation home in Ghaziabad to enquire into the missing case of six minor girls in the last two years. After questioning the staff, the team directed district magistrate to constitute a five-member committee to inquire afresh into the matter.
‘The five-member committee will be comprised of two magistrates, two members from NGOs engaged in protection of child rights and one member child welfare committee of the district,’ said Yogesh Yadav, Chairman of NCPCR. However, NCPCR did not fix any deadline for the report, merely asked to submit the report at the earliest. The police were also directed to trace the girls.
However, the administration claimed that the girls fled from the home and that some of them even had criminal records. But child rights activists maintain that a women trafficking gang was involved in the disappearance of those girls. Earlier, Additional District Magistrate [ADM] of Ghaziabad had conducted the enquiry into the matter. On the basis of the enquiry report, the warden of the observation home Zubeda Khan and District Probation Officer [DPO] Rajeev Sharma were shunted out of the district last month.
On March 2010 the first girl was reported missing from the observation home. But by Febryary 2012, five more girls were reported missing. The girls were between 12 and 17 years old and belong to Meerut, Sarahanpur and Aligarh. They were arrested in different theft cases.
The Government Observation Home for Juvenile Girls was opened in Ghaziabad’s Raj Nagar area at a rented accommodation in April 2009. The observation home staff claimed that they informed the police immediately about the missing girls. But a case was only registered after the order of the District Magistrate Anuradha Upadhyay in the first week of June.
‘The five-member committee will be comprised of two magistrates, two members from NGOs engaged in protection of child rights and one member child welfare committee of the district,’ said Yogesh Yadav, Chairman of NCPCR. However, NCPCR did not fix any deadline for the report, merely asked to submit the report at the earliest. The police were also directed to trace the girls.
However, the administration claimed that the girls fled from the home and that some of them even had criminal records. But child rights activists maintain that a women trafficking gang was involved in the disappearance of those girls. Earlier, Additional District Magistrate [ADM] of Ghaziabad had conducted the enquiry into the matter. On the basis of the enquiry report, the warden of the observation home Zubeda Khan and District Probation Officer [DPO] Rajeev Sharma were shunted out of the district last month.
On March 2010 the first girl was reported missing from the observation home. But by Febryary 2012, five more girls were reported missing. The girls were between 12 and 17 years old and belong to Meerut, Sarahanpur and Aligarh. They were arrested in different theft cases.
The Government Observation Home for Juvenile Girls was opened in Ghaziabad’s Raj Nagar area at a rented accommodation in April 2009. The observation home staff claimed that they informed the police immediately about the missing girls. But a case was only registered after the order of the District Magistrate Anuradha Upadhyay in the first week of June.
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