The first case under the Mental Health Act has been registered by the Delhi police against two employees of an NGO for allegedly ill treating mentally ill senior citizens.
The first case under the Mental Health Act has been registered by the Delhi police against two employees of an NGO for allegedly ill treating mentally ill senior citizens. The police had earlier rescued 62 children and 23 mentally ill elderly women from the NGO’s Ashram in South West Delhi’s Baba Haridas Nagar area. The two employees have also been booked under Protection of Child from Sexual Offence Sex (POCSO).
Confirming that the force has for the first time booked any person under the Mental Health Act, South West Delhi DCP Surender Kumar said: “We are probing the matter further and no arrests have been effected so far,”
A police source said that the ashram named as Prem Dham Ashram was being run by an NGO Human Care International at Dichaun Kalan. The source said that the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) of the Delhi government had complained to the police that that they had conducted several rounds of inspections at the Ashram. The committee members had found that there were several irregularities in taking care of the minor girls and elderly women. They members told the police that CWC had warned the NGO employees several times to carefully look after the mentally ill senior citizens and minor girls.
Despite several warnings, the source said that the NGO employees had not taken any steps for the better upkeep of the Ashram. It is learnt that the CWC team had also made a video and taken photographs of the Ashram. “Two girl children were found naked. One of them was bathing. There were male children as well who were reportedly watching them. Few senior citizens were also bathing in open. The team also found that mentally ill senior citizens were not being looked after as per the prescribed guidelines. The CWC then lodged a case with the Baba Haridas Nagar Police Station.”’
A team of Delhi police and along with a CWC team conducted another raid at the Asharm but the Ashram employees did not allow them to take mentally ill senior citizens and children to a government-run rehabilitation home. R.K. Massey, who runs the NGO, approached the high court against the CWC action. But the high court found the CWC had not violated any norm and ordered that the children be transferred from the Asharm. Following this, the police rescued 22 elderly women, 62 children including 39 girls and 22 boys from the Asharm. While elderly women have been moved to Nari Niketan, other rescued children have been kept at the child observation home.
Preliminary investigations suggest that the NGO was not holding any license to run any psychiatric nursing homes. “We have registered a case under sections 6 (Establishment or Maintenance of Psychiatric hospitals or psychiatric nursing homes only with licence), and 85 (General Provisions for punishment under this act) of Mental Health Act, read with several sections of POCSO at Baba Haridas Nagar Police Station,” a senior police officer told this newspaper.
Speaking with this newspaper, Mr Massey denied that the NGO was involved in any wrongdoing with its inmates. “I have been running this Ashram for about 30 years. I have been looking after poor children and abandoned senior citizens who are mentally ill. I cannot even think of torturing them. The CWC team is against me. They are intentionally harassing me. An official of CWC team who doesn’t like me, created all this situation to teach me a lesson.”
