The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights Chairperson Priyank Kanoongo on Friday alleged that 20 girls are almost imprisoned in an illegal orphanage operating at Sampigehalli here. The NCPRI team conducted a surprise inspection of the orphanage operated by a woman Salma, Kanoongo wrote a post in Hindi on the social media platform X.
"Today shocking information has come to light during the inspection of an illegal orphanage in Bengaluru," he said. "Girls are not sent to school, there is no window or ventilator in the entire children's home and the girls have been kept completely imprisoned," he added.
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According to the NCPRI chairperson, there were 20 girls in the orphanage. He said that some girls used to go to school before coming to the orphanage, but their studies have been discontinued.
"During the conversation, the girls said a woman named Salma, who takes care of the orphanage, arranges the marriages of the girls in Kuwait. From preliminary discussions, it appears that in Gulf countries, the work of grooming girls for trafficking in the name of marriage is done here," the NCPRI chief said in his post. He added that similar cases have already been reported in South India.
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{{/usCountry}}Kanoongo alleged that during the investigation, when it came to presenting the girls before the Child Welfare Committee, Salma and one Shameer called some goons who tried to create a ruckus. "When the goons were controlled with the intervention of the police, one of the goons called someone on the phone and asked to make an announcement from the mosque to call the crowd," Kanoongo charged.
On the advice of the police the NCPRI and Child Welfare Committee members reached the police station, he said. Alleging that the police refused to register a First Information Report, Kanoongo said, "The Karnataka government is bowing down before the criminals due to 'appeasement'."
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Responding to the post, the Bengaluru Police replied, "We have informed the concerned police officers for necessary action.@DCPNEBCP @acpsampigehalli @sampigehallips. In case of distress/ emergency situation, dial #Namma112."