Tiruvannamalai: Many young girls belonging to a govt authorized home in Tiruvannamalai have been sexually assaulted for years. The girls have accused to Tiruvannamalai district authorities that they have been photographed and videographed while they were bathing but the home’s manager.
Tiruvannamalai: Many young girls belonging to a govt authorized home in Tiruvannamalai have been sexually assaulted for years. The girls have accused to Tiruvannamalai district authorities that they have been photographed and videographed while they were bathing but the home’s manager.
This shocking revelation was made to the district child protection officer D Kokila when she accompanied District Collector KS Kandasamy during an inspection at three homes.
The victims rescued from Mercy Adaikalapuram Missionary Home for Children said they were videographed and photographed. “We checked the home’s computer, but there was no evidence. We suspect it was deleted. We are waiting for police to retrieve the lost data,” said the collector. Tiruvannamalai Superintendent of Police M R Sibi Chakravarthy said the hard disk seized was in the custody of the mahila court and police would obtain the court’s permission to send it to a forensic laboratory to retrieve data.
Authorities failed to regularly check well-being of kids
The authorities had sealed three homes and rescued 88 children, 77 girls and 11 boys, over the last six months. Most of the orphaned girls, in the 14-17 age group, had been sexually assaulted repeatedly for years. “The girls were videographed and photographed while they were bathing. None of the bathrooms in the homes had doors,” the Tiruvannamalai probationary officer said, quoting the traumatized girls rescued from the Mercy Adaikalapuram Missionary Home for Children in November 2018.
Luban Kumar, 65, a retired teacher who ran the home, installed CCTV cameras in rooms, in the hall and the verandah. Luban, his wife Mercy Rani, 55, and her brother Justin Manavalan, 50, were booked under the Pocso Act and IPC and also under the Goondas Act.
When the girls complained against Luban for sexually abusing, his wife and her brother beat them, the officer said.
The home has been functioning for more than eight years and the children were sexually assaulted repeatedly. “It went unnoticed as authorities failed to conduct periodical checks or make inquiries about their well-being,” said child rights activist and former Kancheepuram child welfare committee member Zaheeruddin Mohamed to TOI.
Orphans and not children of single parents in these homes were targeted for a long time, said the probationary officer. During Tuesday’s inspection at Arunai home for children, a laptop and desktop were seized. G Vinod Kumar, manager, was booked under sections 354 (A) of IPC read with 8, 11, 21 (2) of Pocso Act 2012. “He forced the girls to watch pornography films and forced them to enact it,” said an official who spoke to a 17-year-old girl.