Opposition BJP in Uttarakhand today said the sexual exploitation of a deaf and dumb Nari Niketan inmate has immensely harmed the state's image by exposing its dismal law and order scenario.
"If women are not secure even in shelter homes the condition of homeless women on the streets can easily be imagined.
The incident has harmed our image by showing that the already bad law and order scenario in Uttarakhand has touched a new low," Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly Ajay Bhatt said.
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Criticising the state government, he said the BJP had long been saying that women inmates at the shelter home were being physically exploited in various ways but the state government chose to ignore such complaints.
"It is only after sustained pressure was built up by the opposition party and the media that the government woke up from its slumber and constituted an SIT to probe the matter and now the reality is before everyone to see," Bhatt said.
The BJP leader, however, said the whole truth is yet to be unravelled in the case as people at whose behest such crimes were being carried out at the shelter home are yet to be exposed.
He also criticised Pradesh Congress Committee president Kishore Upadhyay for recently giving a clean chit to shelter home officials in the case without carrying out a proper investigation into it.
The care taker of the shelter home and a homeguard deployed there were arrested last night for allegedly sexually exploiting a woman inmate with speech and hearing impaired.
In a statement recorded before the Judicial Magistrate with the help of a sign language expert the victim had identified the duo.
They allegedly sexually exploited her on different occasions.
She even got pregnant and was made to undergo an abortion, an official associated with the probe said.
