By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi, Jan 7, 2023: A Catholic priest was sent to judicial custody on January 7 on an alleged disappearance of 26 girls from a hostel managed by the Church in Bhopal district of the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.
Carmelite of Mary Immaculate Father Anil Mathew was reportedly sent to the Bhopal Central Jail after the state government threatened take action against those responsible for the girls allegedly missing from Aanchal (lap) Hostel that the congregation managed at Tara Savania village under Parvalia police station.
The administration has reportedly sealed the hostel, after the news of the girls’ disappearance flooded social media.
On January 7, the hostel authorities through a press statement said that the allegations arose after the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) chairperson and a team of the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) raided the hostel on January 4.
It also said that the girls “had of their free will and without any force or compulsion discontinued their stay and went back to their homes with their parents.”
It clarified that Aanchal “is not running a children’s home but a girls hostel and all the students had taken admission here with the written consent of their parents and family members.”
The hostel authorities clarified that Aanchal had followed the directives of the School Education Department and self-registered the girls hostel online in the department portal.
Father Mathew has been serving children in slums railway platforms, assisting the Railway Child Line.
On January 6, ndtv.com, a news portal, ran a story with the headline “26 Missing Girls From Illegal Bhopal Hostel Safe. Chief Minister Vows Action.”
The portal also quoted a video message from Bhopal (Rural) Superintendent of Police Pramod Kumar Sinha saying the probe had revealed the girls might have left the hostel after feeling homesick.
It quoted state Chief Minister Mohan Yadav saying on January 6 that the girls “reported missing from an illegal children’s home in Bhopal have been found.”
Yadav also said the girls had been identified and were safe. “Not a single culprit or negligent person will be spared,” he asserted.
Earlier, former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had urged the state government for action in the case.
“The case of the disappearance of 26 girls from a children’s home operating without permission in Parwalia police station area of Bhopal has come to my notice,” Chouhan said in a post on X.
“Considering the seriousness and sensitivity of the matter, I urge the government to take cognizance and take immediate action,” he added.
The probe team noticed 26 of the total 67 girls registered in the hostel were missing.
It ordered the transfer of the 41 girls aged 6-18 to the other orphanages and insisted on sending the children to their homes only after completing legal formalities.
The portal quoted the police superintendent that some girls who went to register at the hostel returned home due to various reasons, including finding the stay uninteresting. “The investigation so far shows they have returned to their homes. This is being verified further,” he added.
The ndtv.com also alleged that the teams that searched the place, some 20 km from Bhopal, the state capital, found that the NGO was rescuing children and keeping them “in the illegal children’s home.”
“It is also alleged that girls were forced to practice Christian rituals at the hostel. Documents show that there are 68 registered children at the center.
NCPCR chief Priyank Kanoongo has sought a report from the Madhya Pradesh Chief Secretary within seven days, the portal reported.
An FIR was registered at Parwaliya Sadak Police Station in Bhopal on January 4 under sections of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
The FIR further said that the children’s home was not being run under the Juvenile Justice Act and was unregistered.