Following a request from Women and Child Welfare department, Additional DG, Women Safety Wing, Swati Lakra will now monitor the investigation into the death of the 14-year-old girl, who was raped for several months in Maruthi Home, an NGO for child care at Ameenpur.
Speaking to The Leo News, the official said that a team was formed in her office and will be monitoring the case closely from their end. The Commissioner for Women and Child Welfare department of Telangana, Divya Devarajan said that they have asked the DGP Telangana to assign a DSP rank officer to investigate the case. “All inmates of Maruthi Home have now been shifted to State Home Campus at Yousufguda. The investigating committee is likely to look into the financial transactions of Maruti Home. The high-powered committee will submit a preliminary report by August 20,” she said.
The committee met the family of the minor at Bowenpally and some former inmates of the orphanage on Saturday. No children, so far, have alleged similar abuse or harassment. The 14-year-old minor girl was also physically assaulted by her uncle. She was admitted to Niloufer Hospital on August 7 and died while undergoing treatment. The incident came to light when the girl child went to reside at her uncle’s house at the start of lockdown.
“She was limping due to her injuries and upon her aunt’s questioning, it was realized that she was physically assaulted by her uncle and also sexually assaulted at the orphanage. It was her aunt who took her to the police station,” said a WCWD official, who added that a separate police case has been filed at the Jeedimetla police station by the department against the minor girl’s uncle for assaulting the child.
Though multiple-organ failure was found to have caused her death, an autopsy report would ascertain if the organ failure was due to the repeated sexual assault at the home in Ameenpur or the injuries from the assault by her relatives during her stay with them.
The prime accused in the case, Venugopal Reddy, works for a pharma company. He was one of the main donors to the home and was a frequent visitor. The home organiser Vijaya and her brother Jayadeep used to send the girl into a room where Venugopal would stay every time he visited. He used to allegedly rape her after giving her a drink laced with a soporific drug.
The Sangareddy police had earlier arrested Venugopal, Vijaya and Jaideep. Vijaya had worked in a couple of child care homes in Hyderabad before floating her own organisation.
Following the assault, at Niloufer, the 14-year-old victim explained how she was repeatedly raped by Venugopal and the abuse she underwent at her relatives’ place in the city. Her pregnancy and Covid-19 tests returned negative. The home at Ameenpur has been sealed and all children were shifted to other homes.
Initially, a Zero FIR was registered under charges of rape, wrongful confinement and causing hurt with poison at the Bowenpally police station in Hyderabad. It was later transferred to Ameenpur in Sangareddy district.
Police have registered cases against the accused under Section 376(3) for rape, Section 342 for wrongful confinement, Section 323 for voluntarily causing hurt, Section 328 for causing hurt by means of poison and Section 506 for criminal intimidation, under Indian Penal Code (IPC) as well as under sections of the POCSO Act 2012.
