Gaighat shelter home case: Min sayscharges levelled by woman ‘baseless’

Patna: State social welfare minister Madan Sahni on Saturday said a high-level inquiry conducted by the department into the Gaighat shelter home case found all allegations levelled by the woman as baseless. The department will submit the inquiry report to the court, he added.
“I have verified the first investigation report. All the allegations levelled by the woman, according to the inquiry report, are baseless.If there is a need to investigate this matter further from any angle, the principal secretary has been asked to do so. We cannot punish people based on the allegations when there is no truth in the matter,” Sahni told mediapersons, adding it’s not fair to compare the Patna issue with Muzaffarpur shelter home case.
A former inmate of Uttar Raksha Grih, a shelter home for destitute women at Gaighat, had alleged sexual abuse of inmates by outsiders with the involvement of the shelter home staff and its superintendent, Vandana Gupta.
A team of Bihar State Legal Services Authority (BSLSA) visited the shelter home on Friday and recorded the statement of the woman.
Social welfare director Raj Kumar said the allegations were thoroughly investigated. “The statements of the woman’s family members were also recorded. We have collected all the evidences to prove that the allegations are baseless. I talked to all the girls who were released from the shelter home before and after this woman. All the inmates have dismissed the allegations. Some inmates of the shelter were even sent to Bengaluru to study hotel management,” he said.