Girl missing from Muzaffarpur shelter home traced in Lucknow

One of the four girls who reportedly escaped the Muzaffarpur shelter home, which is embroiled in a sex scandal, has been found in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, police sources said here today.

The girl was reportedly staying at a shelter home in the capital city of Lucknow, the sources said without elaborating.

As per records of the Muzaffarpur shelter home, she was among the four who had managed to flee while another three inmates had died.

Senior Superintendent of Police of Muzaffarpur, Harpreet Kaur, had earlier said the police were verifying the cases of all the seven girls.

The sources said an FIR had been registered on the reported fleeing of the four girls.

Medical reports have confirmed sexual abuse of more than 30 girls formerly lodged at the shelter home, which has since been sealed. The case was handed over to the CBI last week.

The CBI sleuths investigating the shelter home case have obtained records pertaining to the shelter home from the social welfare department in Patna and are examining the documents, official sources said.

The team is likely to question some senior officials of the department if it comes across any act of "omission or commission", the sources said.

The Muzaffarpur shelter home incident had come to light in a social audit conducted by Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

An FIR was lodged by the state social welfare department in June, which led to the arrest of 10 people.