3 get life term in Apna Ghar sexual abuse case

A special CBI court today sentenced three persons to life imprisonment for sexual abuse of destitute girls at Apna Ghar, a shelter for the destitute in Rohtak.

The shelter home inmates were subjected to sexual abuse, physical and mental exploitation and used as bonded labour in the infamous case.

Jaswanti Devi, the woman who ran the government-funded home, her son-in-law Jai Bhagwan and a driver, Satish, were sentenced to life imprisonment.

The court in Panchkula pronounced the quantum of punishment today after it had convicted the nine people in the case on April 18.

The shelter home, which housed the destitute and the mentally challenged, most of them girls, was shut down by the Haryana government in 2012.

Jaswanti Devi's brother, Jaswant Singh got seven years in jail.

The sentences for her two employees, Sheela and Veena, and daughter Sushma were set off against the time they have already spent in prison.

Two others were ordered to be released on probation.

A lawyer for the convicts said they will appeal against the judgment in the High Court.

Apna Ghar hit the headlines when three inmates escaped from the home on May 7, 2012 and alerted the authorities.

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights then conducted a raid at the home and rescued over 100 inmates. This was followed by the arrest of the centre head Jaswanti Devi and the others.

In June 2012, the state government sealed the shelter and a week later handed over the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation. In August 2012, the CBI filed a chargesheet against 10 people in the special CBI court.

However, a former child development project officer in Rohtak, who oversaw the functioning of Apna Ghar, was acquitted.

The charge sheet was filed under Indian Penal Code sections 376 (rape), 506 (criminal intimidation), 313 (abortion carried out forcibly), 323 (criminal assault) and 374 (forcing a person to unlawfully indulge in labour).