The first incident relates to the atrocities against deaf and dumb girls in a hostel being run by a government-aided NGO. A director of the private hostel for speech and hearing impaired girls in Awadhpuri has been booked for raping a 20 year old tribal girl, and also for sexually assaulting two other tribal girls from Dhar district for one year. Two of the three survivors were minors when the sexual atrocities started against them.

While the rape case against the accused, identified as Ashwani Sharma, 45, was registered at Kotwali police station in Dhar following the complaint of the 20-year old survivor on 8th August, the molestation and assault case was registered at Heera Nagar police station in Indore the next day following a complaint by the two girls.

The case dairy of rape case has been transferred to Awadhpuri police station since the hostel was situated in the locality. The police have arrested the accused and taken him to Dhar for identification.

The survivor told police through interpreters that the accused also raped her friend, who lived in the same hostel. The four tribal girls – all speech and hearing impaired – hailing from different villages of Dhar — secured admission in Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) Bhopal in July 2016 after completing high school from Ujjain.

When they reached Bhopal, they were placed in the private hostel. The lodging and boarding for them was reportedly free of cost. Later in September 2017, they were shifted to a separate hostel in Crystal Ideal city in Awadhpuri, when the horror started. Police sources said the accused knows several senior bureaucrats. He has also been seen meeting some ministers. The hostel was never inspected by social justice department officials. There are around 16 hostels aided and run by women and child development department, 10 of which are aided by social justice department in Bhopal.

District collector Sudama P Khade told media persons that regular inspections of these hostels are carried out. He claimed that the hostel where the crime had taken place was not aided directly by the department. A scheme for differently abled children was launched a couple of years ago under which an amount of Rs. 4,000 per student is given to the ITIs. These institutes then reimburse it to the concerned hostels. This amount was provided to the ITI by social justice department and as it was a private hostel it was not inspected. A day after the director of hostel was arrested, officials of the social justice department claimed that it was the responsibility of the ITI officials to ensure the well-being of the girls in the hostel.

The second incident relates to the sensational discovery of another scam, perhaps as big as VYAPAM. This relates to scholarships given to students of certain categories, but it was discovered that the scholarship money was either not paid at all or paid only partially to the beneficiaries. Several institutions and their heads defaulted to the tune of several crore rupees. According to Lokayukta sources, educational institutions used the students or their families for the racket. It is reported that in Rewa town alone more than five colleges were found involved in this loot. These included Paliumpoint college, TRS college and SS Sainath college. Lokayaukta is inquiring into about 100 such cases. In some cases FIRs have already been filed.

The third incident relates to the refusal by the government to allot a government house to Digvijay Singh, Rajya Sabha member and former chief minister. According to a government decision, former chief ministers were allotted rent-free government bungalows with certain other facilities. But following a decision of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, all the former chief ministers were asked to vacate the bungalows, but the Chief Minister decided to re-allot bungalows using his discretionary power. Accordingly bungalows were re allotted to Kailash Joshi, Uma Bharti and Babulal Gaur – all from the BJP, while Digvijay Singh was excluded though he is also a Rajya Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh. According to rules, a people’s representative from outside the state is not entitled to a government accommodation in Madhya Pradesh. But this rule seems to have been relaxed in the case of Uma Bharti, who is a Lok Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh. Earlier Motilal Vora, a former chief minister, was occupying a government bungalow in Bhopal, but was asked to vacate it because he represents Chhatisgarh in Rajya Sabha. So, refusal to Digvijay Singh is considered a blatant case of discrimination. (IPA Service)