Rourkela: Four minor girls, who fled a government residential school at Gope in Midnapore district of West Bengal after allegedly being tortured there, were rescued by Railway police here Thursday afternoon.
The Railway police handed over the girls, who were studying in Vidyasagar Government Girls’ High School, to Childline officials at Bisra.
On being informed, an eight-member team of police from West Bengal led by Midnapore superintendent of police reached the Child Welfare Committee office at Civil Township here. The children were brought to the committee office Friday morning.
The children told the officials that they fled the school in order to escape torture. The officials collected important information from the children during their two-hour interrogation.
The officials, however, did not hand over the girls to the police team even though the latter wanted to take the children with them. The police team returned after the committee told the members that the girls will be handed over to proper authorities in the presence of their parents.
The committee president said a detailed report regarding the girls has been sought from the Child Protection Committee of Midnapore.
The Child Protection officer here said a letter will be written to the Child Protection Committee about the torture inflicted on the children at Balika Bhavan.
Over 200 minor girls were staying at the Balika Bhavan. The girls were provided poor quality food and were subjected to various kinds of torture. As the torture became unbearable, the four girls decided to escape from the campus March 8 evening, they said.
They hired an auto-rickshaw to the railway station and boarded a train at Gidni station to Tata. They boarded another train from Tata and reached Rourkela station at 12.30 pm March 10. They were waiting at the platform for a train to Jhansi, when a railway passenger spotted them and handed them over to railway police.
The girls hailed from Ghaziabad and Jhansi of Uttar Pradesh, Nuagaon of Jharkhand and Chantia. PNN
