Missing Mokama shelter home girl found in Madhubani

By: Ramashankar
PATNA: Police heaved a sigh of relief after a 16-year-old girl, who along with six other girl inmates of the Nazareth shelter home at Mokama in Patna had escaped on February 23, was finally traced to Jainagar in Madhubani district, around 200km north of Patna, in the wee hours of Wednesday.
The special investigation team (SIT) headed by Barh additional superintendent of police Lipi Singh had earlier recovered six girls from Darbhanga.The seventh girl, stated to be a resident of Dinajpur in West Bengal, was, however, missing. Police teams were despatched to Uttar Pradesh, Bengal and Delhi to trace the minor girl, a key witness in the Muzaffarpur shelter home sexual abuse case.
Director general of police (DGP) Gupteshwar Pandey said sincere efforts of the police teams led to the safe recovery of the seventh girl from Jainagar in Madhubani district, close to India-Nepal border. The police traced the girl on the basis of mobile surveillance of the youth who were in constant touch with her ever since she had disappeared from the government-funded shelter home.
Station house officer (SHO) of Jainagar GRP Binod Ram told this newspaper over phone that the girl’s identity was ascertained with the photograph sent to them by Patna SP (rural) Sanjay Kumar Singh. “She was found sitting near a tea stall on the railway station premises around 3.30am on Wednesday. Luckily she was the same girl who had escaped from Mokama in Patna,” he added.
An investigating officer said the girl had reached Jainagar by a train. Three youths, including one from Patna, have been detained for interrogation in this connection. One of the youths had reportedly accompanied the girl after she got separated from other ones in the train, the officer said, adding cash amounting to Rs 1,000 was also recovered from her possession.
She had been brought to Patna and kept in a special care unit. “A doctors’ team has been deputed there to take care of girl’s health condition,” said inspector-general of police (Patna zone) Sunil Kumar. Kumar himself is monitoring the investigation into the escape of the girls from the Mokama shelter home run by Nazareth Hospital Society.
A police team comprising the officials of Patna women’s police station was sent to Jainagar to take the girl to the state capital. The investigating officer said the girl’s statement would be recorded after her condition improved. “She is giving contradictory statements making the task of the police more complex,” the officer said.
Five of the seven girls, who had disappeared from the Mokama-based shelter home, were shifted from the Balika Grih at Muzaffarpur in July last year. Four of them were witnesses in the sexual abuse case being probed by the CBI. “The Bengal girl was rescued by Shaista Parveen alias Madhu, a close associate of the main accused Brajesh Thakur, from Muzaffarpur red light area and kept in the shelter home,” the investigating officer said.
She was reportedly sold for Rs.10,000 by her father, a resident of Dinajpur in Bengal. “She had fallen victim to the human trafficking gang operating in Bihar,” the officer said.