Hyderabad: Two persons were arrested after two orphan girls accused accountant of Children's Home in Neredmet here of raping them, according to police sources. After receiving a complaint from the victims, the police arrested the accountant along with another accused. Cases have been registered against the main accused Murali under POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) and SC, ST Atrocities (Prevention) Act.
The matter came to light after four girls ran away from the orphanage on October 19, prompting the orphanage management to file a missing complaint with the Neredmet police the same day. A private organization, the Children's Home is providing accommodation to 32 orphan girls, two of them majors, near Neredmet Cross Road in the Medchal district.
Two of the runaway girls went to Sangareddy and took refuge in the house of an acquaintance there. Based on the missing complaint, the police traced the remaining two girls in Secunderabad. When they were taken to the officials of Women and Child Welfare Department and Sakhi Center, they were given counselling.
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During counselling, both girls told the officials that they were sexually assaulted and blamed accountant Murali for it. It has been revealed that one girl was raped at the shelter and the other was raped outside in another location. Later, the two girls were sent to Sakhi Center. The two girls in Sangareddy were shifted to Hyderabad by the police.
The girls said they ran away unable to bear sexual harassment from the accountant. The police registered a case based on the statement of the girls. As part of the investigation, more things came to light. It seems that the main accused Murali used to misbehave with girls. It is known that he used to sexually harass them and make them do massage for him.
The police also took the administrator of the shelter into custody, who assured to cooperate with the investigating officers in the matter. The child welfare officials who seized the orphanage and shifted the students to different orphanages. The Department of Women and Child Welfare is conducting a special internal investigation into this incident, sources said. Some of the girls from Neredmet Home were shifted to the government welfare hostel in Nimboliadda.
Meanwhile, protests are going on over this incident. A dharna was organized in front of the Hyderabad school education commissioner's office under the leadership of the left-wing student and women's groups. They demanded that strict measures should be taken so that such incidents do not repeat.
