Dhenkanal: As the remand of Fayaz Raheman, the main accused in the alleged sexual exploitation of inmates at Beltikiri shelter home run by Good News India, ended Friday, he was sent to judicial custody. The special POCSO court deferred hearing on his bail application to December 12.
After interrogation, no further facts could be elicited from Raheman and he may be again taken on remand if necessary, said SP Santosh Kumar Nayak.
Meanwhile, the court has asked the police to submit the case diary before December 12.
Dhenkanal police had taken Raheman on 4-day remand and had grilled him about the alleged sexual exploitation of minor inmates and forced conversion.
During interrogation, police came to know that the shelter home was receiving a huge amount of funds from foreign countries including the USA.
All the activities of the shelter home were being controlled from the head office in West Bengal.
The SP had earlier revealed that dollars coming from California were being exchanged through some SBI braches and transferred to the account of its head office in Medinapore.
The funds being deposited at the Salgadia SBI branch were coming to an ICICI branch in Bhubaneswar and from there funds were being transferred to its institutions. Raheman received nearly Rs 15 crore as donations annually from the USA.
The shelter home at Salgadia was registered under the Society Registration Act-1961 of the West Bengal government while the shelter home has 25 branches in the state. Raheman had allegedly purchased the land at Beltikri from a Dalit man in a fraudulent manner. The Collector had announced that the land purchases would be brought into the purview of investigation.
The visuals of baptizing of children that had gone viral on social media did not belong to Odisha branches of the NGO, but to a branch in West Bengal, it was learnt.
PNN
