Telangana Home Supervisor Assaults 10-year-old Boy

Hyderabad:Police arrested Abdul Rahman, 47, a supervisor of a government children’s home at Saidabad for sexually assaulting one of the home’s inmates, a 10-year-old Dalit boy, since May 11. Rahman was booked under the Pocso Act and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

According to police sources, Rahman has reportedly confessed to sexually assaulting six other inmates since 2022. Police strongly suspect that he might have committed similar offences against several other inmates.

According to the family members of the victim, they learnt of the assault only when the child refused to return to the children’s home.

“His reluctance made us suspicious. When we counselled him, he told us that the supervisor had been assaulting him during at night in his dormitory,” a relative of the victim disclosed.

The accused had been working as an outsourcing supervisor at the home since 2022. The Saidabad police’s Bharosa team recorded the victim’s statement.

Saidabad station house officer B. Shoban said the police had seized Rahman’s mobile phone, collected the clothes of both the victim and the accused, and sent them to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) for examination. The accused was subjected to a potency test by a team of medical officers at Osmania General Hospital (OGH) before being produced in court for judicial remand.

The children’s home houses 84 inmates aged between 10 and 17 years. Most of them are from economically weaker families, or are orphans, street children, or victims of abuse.

Interacting with media persons at the home, Syed Afzal Shali, superintendent of the government children’s home, said the department had constituted an in-house inquiry team headed by Mythri. She recorded the statements of 84 minor inmates and submitted a report to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and police officials.

He said the police recorded the statements of three other inmates who were staying in the dormitory with the victim, in the presence of Bharosa team members. Later, the accused was summoned to the home and arrested.

“We were shocked to learn about the incident. Every month, officials from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Roshni Foundation, Child Welfare Committees, and judicial officers visit the home and interact with the inmates. So far, such an incident has not been reported from any state-run home,” said a senior CWC official.