Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Panchkula, April 27
Three people have been given life sentences for having sexually exploited minors in a 2012 case that infamously came to be known as the Apna Ghar sexual abuse.
Jaswanti Devi, who ran Rohtak’s Apna Ghar—an NGO for destitute children—her son-in-law Jai Bhagwan and a driver, Satish, were identified as key suspects in the case and sentenced to life. Jaswanti Devi’s brother Jaswant Singh got seven years in jail.
Sentences of Jaswanti’s daughter Sushma alias Simmi, Satish’s sister Sheela, and Veena—a counsellor at Apna Ghar—who were also found guilty of being involved, were set off against the time they have already spent in prison.
Roshni, an accused found guilty of having forcibly taken away an inmate’s child and forging a birth certificate, and Ram Prakash Saini, who worked closely with Jaswanti Devi at Apna Ghar, have both released on probation.
Defence counsel Abhishek Singh Rana said the accused would appeal the order.
Abuse at Apna Ghar hit national headlines when three inmates who escaped from the shelter home on May 7, 2012, alerted authorities of the activities at Apna Ghar.
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) rescued some 103 inmates—mostly children and young girls—after a surprise raid on May 9, 2012.
In its charge sheet filed on April 7, 2012, the Central Bureau of Investigation accused seven people—Jaswanti Devi, Sushma, Jai Bhagwan, Satish, Jaswant Singh, Veena and her cousin Sheela—of sexually exploiting inmates at the orphanage.
The CBI filed charges against three others—Roshni, Ram Prakash Saini and Angrez Kaur Hooda—in a second charge sheet on September 16, 2013. Hooda, a former child development project officer of Rohtak who oversaw functioning of Apna Ghar, was acquitted of the charges on April 18.
