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All nine orphanage girls traced, brought back
Under police protection at present, the girls might be relocated to another facility on CWC recommendation, an official said.
All nine minor girls who escaped from an orphanage in the city on Friday were traced and brought back to Lucknow by Sunday, police officials said.
“Out of nine girls, six were traced in Bihar’s Siwan district on Sunday and one in Ayodhya. Two others had already been found near Purania Crossing in Aliganj within sometime of their escape,” said Aliganj assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Braj Narayan Singh.
A 15-member police team was deployed to rescue the girls who lived at NGO-run Shriram Industrial Orphanage in the city’s Aliganj area. The girls ran away after cutting open the window grills in the orphanage’s bathroom in the wee hours of Friday.
Aliganj station house officer VK Tiwari said, “Hundreds of CCTV cameras were scanned to identify their escape route. Their family members were informed. Since most of the girls were from Bihar, a team was sent there to their homes. The girls were traced using surveillance.”
“Currently, the rescued girls are in police protection and they will be shifted to another facility on the recommendation of the CWC (child welfare committee),” he added.
Their escape came to light when orphanage staff carried out a headcount in the morning. One of the bathrooms was checked and its window grills were found damaged.
Later that day, police and the district administration relocated every inmate of the orphanage to Rajkiya Bal Griha in the Para area.
A case under BNS section 264 (A) [omission to apprehend, or sufferance of escape, on part of a public servant...] was registered on a complaint by the orphanage administration.
While the reason for the girls’ escape was still under probe, the orphanage superintendent had alleged that a few of them had ‘brainwashed’ their fellow inmates to run away with them.
