Madhya Pradesh Police locates all 26 girls missing from children's home in Bhopal
Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh Police has successfully located all 26 girls who were reported missing from an illegally operated children's home in Bhopal, media reported.
Two district Child Development Project Officers (CDPOs) were suspended in relation to the incident, and notices were served to two others, reported India Today.
According to the police, they found 10 girls in the Adampur Chawni area, 13 in the slums, two in Top Nagar, and one in Raisen.
The news about missing girls came to light on Thursday when the National Commission for Protection Of Child Rights (NCPCR) chairman, Priyank Kanungo, conducted an unannounced visit to the Aanchal Girls' Hostel located in the Parwalia area on the outskirts of Bhopal.
On inspecting the shelter home's register, Kanungo discovered that it contained entries for 68 girls, but 26 of them were missing.
The girls belonged to states, such as Gujarat, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh.
Kanungo said that a missionary overseeing the children's home had rescued some children from the streets and operated the shelter home without a valid license, the report said.
He further noted that the rescued children were confined to the premises and compelled to follow Christian practices secretly.
All the missing girls were living at the home without the approval of the Child Welfare Committee. Nonetheless, officials from the children's home claimed that the children had been rescued and were produced before the committee.
Following the filing of the FIR, two Child Development Project Officers (CDPOs), namely Brijendra Pratap Singh and Komal Upadhyay, were suspended on Saturday due to alleged negligence in the case.
Show-cause notices were served to Sunil Solanki, an officer in the Women and Child Development Department, and Ramgopal Yadav, an assistant director at the department.