1 held in rape case of deaf-mute Nari Niketan inmate

Dehradun, Jan 7: An employee of the women's shelter home named Nari Niketan has been arrested in connection with the alleged rape and subsequent abortion of a speech and hearing impaired inmate at the facility.

The accused, Gurdas, who used to work as a safai karamchari at the shelter was arrested yesterday from Haridwar after his DNA matched with that of the aborted fetus of the victim, Dehradun SSP Sadanad Date said.

The accused who is already suspended by the Directorate of Social Welfare after his name cropped up as one of the suspects in connection with the case has been sent for 14 days in judicial custody, he said.

The shocking incident of rape and abortion of a physically challenged inmate at the women's shelter home had came to light in November 2015 prompting the state government to order a probe into it by an SIT headed by SP (city) Sanjay Singh.

This is the ninth arrest in connection with the case in which eight others including the former superintendent of the shelter home and her deputy have already been arrested.

The arrest of Gurdas lends credence to the belief that shelter home insiders were involved in the sexual exploitation of the woman inmate who in her magisterial statement recorded with the help of a sign language expert earlier had accused several male employees of Nari Niketan of having perpetrated the crime on her.

The fetus had been recovered from Dudhli forest on the outskirts of the city soon after the SIT began its probe into the incident.

PTI