This story is from November 22, 2019

Special investigation team to probe Siwan shelter home inmate’s sexual assault case

A special investigation team (SIT) has been set up to probe the sexual assault case of a seven-year-old girl inmate of a government-funded shelter home in Siwan.
Special investigation team to probe Siwan shelter home inmate’s sexual assault case
A special investigation team (SIT) has been set up to probe the sexual assault case of a seven-year-old girl inmate of a government-funded shelter home in Siwan.
PATNA: A special investigation team (SIT) has been set up to probe the sexual assault case of a seven-year-old girl inmate of a government-funded shelter home in Siwan.
The victim was shifted to Mokama shelter home in Patna district on the recommendation of Siwan DM Ranjita last week.
Siwan SP Naveen Chandra Jha said on Thursday that the SIT headed by sadar SDPO Jitendra Pandey would locate the real culprit, whose name the survivor had revealed to the members of the medical team, when the latter visited the facility for a medical check-up.
The SIT also comprised of the SHO of the women’s police station Manju Kumari, who had recovered the statement of the victim before she was shifted from Siwan to Mokama.
The SP said that the medical report had detected the minor girl’s ‘old hymen ruptured’. “The possibility of sexual assault can’t be ruled out, especially when she had disclosed the name of the offender. Efforts are on to nab the culrpit,” Jha told this newspaper over phone from Siwan on Thursday.
He, however, hastened to add that the girl had not mentioned the period when the incident happened with her. This has made the task of the investigating officers difficult. Moreover, she recalled the trauma almost after two years of her being lodged in the shelter home, he added.
The shelter home, run by an NGO—Vishishth Dattak Grahan Sansthan— had six inmates when the medical team visited the facility on November 8 for a routine medical check-up. The next day, an FIR was lodged with the Siwan women’s police station.

Siwan DM Ranjita said that justice would be done to the survivor. “I have asked the SP to take all possible steps to ensure that justice is delivered to the survivor, a physically disabled,” she said adding that no lapses on the part of the investigating officers would be tolerated.
The social welfare department, in the meantime, has directed all district magistrates to ensure regular medical check-up of the inmates of shelter homes across the state. “Now medical check-up of every girl inmate has been made mandatory at the time of their admission,” a senior social welfare department official said.
Earlier, there was no provision of medical check-up of the girl inmates at the time of admission, which led to the incident with the inmates of much highlighted Balika Grih in Muzaffarpur last year.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
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