How Could You? Hall of Shame-India-Ajit Dabhokar and Lalita Tonde UPDATED
This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.
From Karjat, India, “two days after the arrests of” Ajit Dabhokar and Lalita Tonde “on charges of sexually abusing the inmates, chilling details have emerged about the alleged crime.”
“Ajit Dabhokar, the founder of Chandraprabha Charitable Trust (CCT) and his assistant Lalita Tonde were arrested on Monday night after five students of the shelter home approached the police through an NGO. Since then, three more children have come forward with the same complaint.
In their statements to the local magistrate, the children alleged they sexually assaulted by the duo, who even filmed the acts. They were also allegedly forced to perform sexual acts on each other. They were starved and beaten if they resisted, their statements said.
The shelter-cum-school was set up 12 years ago and housed around 35 children between the ages of 5 and 15.
The Hindu traced one of the victims, an 8 year old girl whose complaint blew the lid off the case. While she was too terrified to narrate her ordeal, she gave a detailed account in her statement to the magistrate.
A resident of Pune, the victim and her elder sister were admitted to the shelter two years ago by their mother who worked as a domestic help. When she went home during the summer vacation, her mother felt she was “behaving strangely”. She alerted her employer, a social worker, in whom the child confided. The employer approached an NGO Dnyan DeviChildine, which lodged a complaint with the police.
In her statement to the magistrate, the girls has alleged that she was forced to have oral sex with Dabholkar. She says she was forced to watch blue films and “enact” what she had she had seen with her male classmates.
“If we refused, we were caned or denied food. Some of my friends were made to eat dog excreta and drink their own vomit,” her statement says.
“The degree of torture inflicted on the children is unspeakable,” said Dr. Anuradha Sahasrabuddhe , director of the Dnyan DeviChildine group. “We have recovered the register at the shelter home which gives details of all the inmates and will be recording more statements,” said the S Jadhav, investigating officer at the Karjat police station.
The accused have been booked under newly constituted Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act, 2012 and the Indian Penal Code. The shelter home claimed to provide education to children from poor families at a nominal fee. While the trust was registered in 2002, it had no license from the state government.
The NGO has also brought to the notice of the police, two deaths at the shelter home. “In their statements, the victims said an 8-year old boy died at the shelter home around two years ago. Also the relatives of Lalita have complained that her husband died mysteriously in 2008 and his death was not investigated. They suspect he was killed by the duo after he learnt about their activities,” said Dr Sahasrabuddhe.”
Two held for sexual abuse of children at Karjat shelter home [The Hindu 5/29/14 by Rashmi Rajput]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Update: ”
Citing insensitivity by the police team investigating the child sexual abuse scandal at a residential facility in Karjat, child rights’ activist and the complainant in the case, Anuradha Sahasrabuddhe, has written to the state’s director general of police (DGP) Sanjeev Dayal with a request that it be transferred.
“We urge you to shift this case outside Raigad, but hope this would not mean re-interrogation of children,” Sahasrabuddhe, who is the director of Dnyana Devi Childline, wrote in her letter to the police chief. Repeated interrogations of the survivors in the case are one of the reasons that Sahasrabuddhe is seeking a transfer of the case.
“The survivors have already given their detailed statements before the members of the child welfare committee (CWC), but police insist on interrogating them again and again making the children relive the horrors that they have been through. With the police reaching the homes of the survivors and the wide publicity the case has received, the children are now being teased by their friends,” Sahasrabuddhe said.
In her letter, she has also raised other lapses by police in the course of the investigation. For instance, although the first arrest in the case was made on May 26, the premises of the residential school were not sealed by the police until May 28. Similarly, requests had been made on the day of filing the complaint to seal the Pune office of the trust, but police acted only on May 29.
“By then the locks of the premises had been changed and we suspect incriminating evidence has been removed. At present, the police claim that the premises has been ‘sealed’, but an easily breakable lock has been placed at this office,” she said.
We urge you to shift this case outside Raigad, but hope this would not mean re-interrogation of children.”
Child sexual abuse scandal: Transfer case, says complainant[The Times of India 6/7/14 by Ananya Dutta]
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