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NCPCR upbraids Haryana for ridiculous ATR on Apna Ghar case
The Haryana government has drawn the ire of the national child rights body for paying "scant regard" to its directives in a case of sexual abuse of inmates at a shelter home and submitting a "ridiculous" action taken report in connection with it.
The Haryana government has drawn the ire of the national child rights body for paying "scant regard" to its directives in a case of sexual abuse of inmates at a shelter home and submitting a "ridiculous" action taken report in connection with it.
Shanta Sinha, chairperson of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), warned of stringent action against officials for failing to furnish complete information regarding the Apna Ghar case and said state officials will be summoned again if they do not submit a proper status report.
"We have issued several directives to the government to furnish the status reports on the case. The government responded just once and gave us a report, but it hardly addressed any of the issues we had raised. We have no other way to go but to summon state officials for a second time," Sinha told PTI.
Instances of sexual abuse and torture of inmates of Apna Ghar, a shelter home in Rohtak, came to light after a NCPCR team carried out a surprise raid on May 9 and rescued nearly 120 people, including children and women.
The scandal-hit home, being run by NGO Bharat Vikas Sangh, was sealed on June 9, three days after Haryana Police DGP R S Dalal announced the constitution of a special investigative team to probe the case.
NCPCR member Vinod Tikkoo, who was part of the team that raided Apna Ghar, described the Action Taken Report submitted by Haryana government as "ridiculous" as it does not even contain details like where the rescued children were send.
"The ATR they have submitted is nothing short of ridiculous. They are forcing us to take the matter to the court, and we have enough proof to show that we had written to them over a dozen times on the issue for the last one year, but all went unheeded," Tikkoo said.
