Rohtak shelter home sealed after reports of abuse

Jyoti Kamal CNN-IBN | 09-Jun 09:51 AM

Chandigarh: A day after the horrific tales of rape and prostitution in a government shelter in Rohtak surface, Harayana government on Saturday ordered the sealing of the shelter home. The state government has been under pressure to act after CNN-IBN highlighted the findings of a High Court team probe. The report revealed shocking details of women and children being gangraped and physically tortured.

The report names the government shelter's caretaker and several police officials too. Teams from the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and the National Commission of Women (NCW) are heading to Rohtak on Saturday to meet the over 100 inmates, who have been transfered to several other homes.

Earlier, the state's Women and Child Welfare Minister has promised to rehabilitate victims and book all culprits.

For five years, it's been a journey through hell for one of the sexual abuse victims. Poverty forced her to leave her home and go to Gurgaon in search of a job, and while working there she was gangraped and a son was born to her. The police sent her to the Apna Ghar in Rohtak where there was a second round of exploitation. The owner of Apna Ghar also allegedly sold off her son without her permission.

More such horror stories emerged from the Apna Ghar shelter home - sordid details of how these girls were raped and tortured and forced into prostitution. Details of how even government and police officials, people who were supposed to protect these girls, cruelly exploited them.

"In the Apna Ghar we were beaten up and were also made to do bad things. Some were made naked and beaten up and others were tied to the fan or the bed and beaten up. We were made to massage people and while we were doing it others would stand and watch," one of the victims said.

"Lot of things happened there. Wrong things were done with the girls. Girls were sent out to do labour work too. Grown up girls were kept naked without clothes. There was a cage like structure in which girls and women were kept naked under blankets. Three small children were sold in front of me and four to five girls were sold," another abuse victim said.

An exclusive video available with CNN-IBN shows how even women who were deaf and dumb or mentally challenged were not spared A video of a mentally challenged woman showing how she was bitten and then aborted with a stick.

Video of second woman shows torture marks on arms. Video of a deaf and dumb woman shows her gesturing that her clothes were ripped off and she was made to abort with a stick and then tortured with hands tied.

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