The accused, Ajit Dabholkar, the founder of Chandraprabha Charitable Trust and his assistant, Lalita Tonde were picked up during a raid by the local police.
Two people have been arrested after an NGO alleged that few children, aged between 5 and 15, were being sexually abused at a shelter home in Maharashtra's Karjat, close to Pune.
The children, activists alleged, were made to watch pornography and perform sexual acts on each other. In more horrific details, they also told the police that the children were forced to eat human faeces when they were hungry. All of this was also allegedly filmed by an accused.
The accused, Ajit Dabholkar, the founder of Chandraprabha Charitable Trust and his assistant, Lalita Tonde were picked up during a raid by the local police after FIRs were filed by the Pune and Raigad branches of NGO Childline.
The NGO conducted an investigation for almost a month, after the mother of one of the children, a domestic worker, narrated the incident to her employers. Her employers then approached the NGO.
As of now, around six children have given in writing that they were abused.
The accused were presented before a special court in Alibaug, after being arrested on Monday night under various sections of POSCO (Protection of Children From Sexual Offenses Act). They have been remanded to police custody till June 5.
The private shelter home, run by a Trust, housed around 30 children, both boys and girls, most of whom belong to poor families. However, only three children were found at the shelter during the raid, as the rest had gone home for summer vacation.