Home guard under probe for AIDS-afflicted boy’s sodomy

The Delhi Police on Wednesday told the Delhi High Court that it had zeroed in on a guard of a government-run children home in Alipur for allegedly sodomising a seven-year-old AIDS-afflicted boy a month ago. Heinous crime

The Delhi Police on Wednesday told the Delhi High Court that it had zeroed in on a guard of a government-run children home in Alipur for allegedly sodomising a seven-year-old AIDS-afflicted boy a month ago.

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“Initially, three boys of the home were being probed. But they turned out to be innocent. Now we suspect a guard of the home has committed the crime and he will soon be interrogated,” police counsel Pawan Sharma told a bench headed by Justice SK Kaul.

“Some other inmates of the home also complained that the guard used to beat and abuse them and this fact came to light during a probe by the child welfare committee,” Sharma said.

The court had ordered an enquiry after taking suo motu (on its own) cognizance of media reports of the incident. Sharma informed the court that an FIR under section 377 IPC (unnatural offences) and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act had been registered after the incident came to light.

The boy was brought to the home three years ago by an NGO after his mother died of AIDS and his stepfather was lodged in Tihar jail for raping his daughter.

The police said medical tests on the initial three suspects showed that they were innocent following which the court asked the police to expand the ambit of probe.

The police also told the court that the three also did not test HIV positive.

The police said the CWC had already shifted the boy from the Alipur home to Asha Kiran home in Rohini.

The committee is conducting a separate enquiry into the incident. The police said the CWC was counselling him and taking care of his needs as an HIV patient.