A Panchkula court today convicted nine persons for subjecting scores of inmates of a government-funded Rohtak orphanage to a string of heinous offences like rape, forced abortion and bonded labour in the infamous 2012 'Apna Ghar' shelter home case.
Those convicted by Panchkula's special CBI court included orphanage head Jaswanti Devi and many of her kin, who, along with other convicts are still in jail since their arrest by the CBI in 2012.
The quantum of sentence would be pronounced on April 24.
Apna Ghar was an orphanage housing destitute and mentally-challenged persons, mostly girls.
The gory tales of inhuman torture of the hapless inmates at the orphanage surfaced in May 2012 following a raid on it by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights. Over 100 inmates, including children and minor girls, were rescued by the Commission following the raid.
The Haryana government subsequently in June 2012 had sealed the shelter home and a week later handed over the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation. The CBI had filed a chargesheet against 10 people in special CBI court in Panchkula in August 2012.
The CBI had chargesheeted Jaswanti Devi and nine others, including some of her relatives for committing various penal offences like subjecting girl inmates to rape and subsequent forcible abortion, physical assault, bonded labour and criminal conspiracy among others.
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