Haryana cops recall upsetting tales of Apna Ghar victims

Vishal Joshi

Tribune News Service

Kurukshetra, April 23

On the eve of expected pronouncement of punishment to nine convicts in the infamous Apna Ghar sex scandal case by a CBI court, investigators of the state police recall the traumatic tales of nearly 100 inmates at Rohtak’s shelter home.

They said the guilty should get exemplary punishment for the crime.

MS Mann, who retired as the Director General of Police rank, told The Tribune that the Rohtak-based crime spot was a “fort-like prison”.

“I recollect my visits to the spot in 2012 where differently abled girls and women were living in very bad conditions. Apna Ghar was built like a secretive jail where the real condition of inmates could not be known to the outside world,” said Mann, who was heading the Special Investigative Team (SIT) of the state police before the case was handed over to the CBI.

Mann said the SIT was constituted after the state authorities were not convinced with the investigations by then officials of Rohtak district.

In May 2012 three inmates, who had run away from Apna Ghar, were rescued in New Delhi. As they shared details of sexual and mental exploitation of inmates, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) raided the premises located at Rohtak’s Shri Nagar locality.

Around 120 inmates were rescued from the shelter home.

“SIT member Dharna Yadav, then a newly recruited DSP, played the most important role in confidence building among the abused children and women. It was only due to Dharna and her women police subordinates Laxmi, Satya and Vidyawati, the victims opened up to share their tales of years of sexual and mental abuse,” he said.

Mann said Yadav used to play with the minors and the differently abled victims to gain their confidence in building the case.

Yadav, currently posted as ACP at Gurugram, said the threat of the owner of the protection home Jaswanti Devi was visible on the faces of the inmates.

She said it was shocking to listen to the endless tales of the brutality of innocent lives. Inmates were subjected to exploitation at a place where they were supposed to get protection, she said.

“It was my first major professional assignment. As an inexperienced cop, I really found it tough to accept such a brutal face of the society. After the expose, the victims got overwhelming support from the child helpline, police, press and volunteers. But the major relief came from the judiciary and the guilty will get suitable punishment,” she said.

Yadav recalls that several of the victims were psychologically challenged and they were unable to narrate their ordeal.

“We had to rope in the sign language exerts and special educators for their assistance,” she said.