BHOPAL: Three separate FIRs have been registered in connection with the alleged sexual exploitation and torture of inmates at a shelter home in Bhopal and Hoshangabad districts. They include three cases of sodomy and one of rape FIR was registered late on Friday night and four people including a woman caretaker at the hostel, and a former Army man, who is the owner of a shelter home in Bhopal, have been arrested and produced in the court, so far.FIRs were registered at TT Nagar police station in Bhopal and two cases were transferred to Khajuri police station and one to Malakhedi police station of Hoshangabad district.After the cases were registered, police along with the six survivors visited the crime scene and verified the spot. Superintendent of police (headquarters) Dharamveer Singh Yadav inspected the spot on Saturday.The survivors along with the interpreter were taken to Khajuri police station for recording their statements.Officials at Khajuri police said, the sexual harassment case was registered against Mahesh Prasad Awasthi, 70, director of hostel, Vijay Mishra, 48, caretaker of the hostel and Rakesh Kumar Chaudhary, 54, teacher at a government school in Bairagarh. The rape case was registered against Awasthi and Neeta Mishra, 45, who is wife of Vijay Mishra, and works in the hostel as caretaker. She is alleged to have aided Awasthi for raping the survivors and for assaulting the children at the Bairagarh hostel.The third case was filed at Malakhedi police station of Hoshangabad district against Mahesh Awasthi and Kavita Chouksey, who was posted in the Hoshangabad hostel.Survivor, 24, alleged that, she was raped for seven years. She got admitted to the hostel in 2004 and the accused allegedly started raping her from 2010 almost every Saturday.She met a person Ranjeet Thakur, who visited the hostel to distribute food to children and she shared her pain with him. Thakur helped her to get admitted in Ashaniketan located in Arera Colony, Bhopal in 2012. She studied there for four years and returned to the Hoshanagabd hostel again in May, 2016. Here she was again raped for a year till 2017 when she got admission to a degree college in Bhopal.In June 2017, Hoshangabad collector suspended the license of hostel after which it was closed. Hoshangabad SP Arvind Saxena told TOI, “After Bhopal police complete their investigation we will approach court to permit us to get the survivor here and verify the spot. We will proceed with investigations thereafter.”The otherwise deserted office of the social justice department in Bhopal was full of activity since Friday after 40 deaf and mute teenagers protested demanding justice. The teenagers— four boys and two girls — demanded that MP Awasthi, owner of government-aided shelter home Bairagarh, be put behind bars for alleged rapes and sodomy.With fear in their eyes, the victims covered their faces to keep their identities secret and shared their sufferings through an interpreter and sign language expert Shraddha Shukla.The teens alleged that Awasthi often raped them and bashed them mercilessly if they resisted him. They submitted a written complaint with their signatures listing Awasthi’s exploitative acts. Later, the members reached at TT Nagar police station for lodging their complaint.

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