Rape survivors given growth hormones, raped again in Delhi govt home

New Delhi: The staff of a state-run shelter home in West Delhi has been accused of molesting at least 10 teenage girls, and forcibly injecting them with unexplained drugs and beating them if they tried resisting.

The government-run place, which is supposed to be a home for rape survivors and people rescued from city’s streets and brothels has turned into a house of horror, a report in the Hindustan Times read.

At least two girls have allegedly accused the officials of molesting them. Another girl said that she was starved for days after she accused a staff member of torturing her. The girls also accused some officials of injecting medicines, which were allegedly stimulating premature growth.

“The girls were allegedly given an Oxytocin-type substance that stimulates changes in their body. Police conducted a medical examination of syringe marks and registered a case. The officials are being questioned,” HT quoted its sources as saying.

Many girls who were given this drug were raped and sold to brothels, said the report.

The banned drug is a favourite among human traffickers who inject it into their prepubescent victims to spur their growth hormones and give them appearance like adults.

One of the girls wrote about this horrific incident to the Delhi Legal Services Authority and brought it into light, said the report. She also spoke about the human rights violations and torture which took place. The letter followed similar complaints from nine more girls, which prompted the authority to alert the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW).

Chief of DCW Swati Maliwal visited the home on April 8 and immediately wrote to Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik, alleging that the girls told her team they were beaten and harassed.

An FIR was registered on April 16 by the police after which the officials were charged with criminal intimidation, causing harm by poisoning, criminal conspiracy and laws under the juvenile justice care and protection act.

Maliwal in her complaint accused the officials at the shelter of locking the door and refusing to let her enter when she went to meet the girls for the second time. The girls allegedly lived in squalor — without adequate and nutritious food and proper clothing.

They were forced to wear the same set of clothes every day, a DCW spokesperson was quoted as saying.