Chhattisgarh: Woman thrashes two kids at adoption centre; video goes viral, FIR sought
Kanker, Jun 5: A video showing a woman thrashing two children at an NGO-run adoption centre in Kanker district of Chhattisgarh has gone viral on social media, following which the district collector sought registration of a police case and also suspended the NGO from operating the facility, officials said on Monday.
In the video reported to be from CCTV footage, a woman is seen thrashing a girl, holding her by the hair, and throwing her on the floor. She then lifts the girl, throws her on the bed and continues to thrash her. In the video, the woman can be seen asking another girl to come forward and she too is placed on the bed and thrashed.
The woman in the video has been identified as Seema Dwivedi, Superintendent of 'Visheshkrit Dattak Grahan Agency' (Specialised Adoption Agency or SAA), run by Pratigya Vikas Sanstha, officials said. Orphan children below the age of six years are kept in the SAA.
After the video came to light on Saturday, the Directorate of State's Women and Child development, which supervises the operation of such facilities, was asked to submit a report, Kanker Collector Priyanka Shukla said.
"A team of the state Women and Child Development department visited the centre on Sunday and carried out an inspection and submitted a report to me today. Before that, the NGO has been suspended from operating the centre and local police have been asked to register an FIR against Dwivedi," she said.
In the inspection report submitted to Shukla by WCD director Divya Umesh Mishra it was stated that the complaint of assault on children in SAA Kanker was found to be true, and it sought an FIR against Dwivedi under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
In the report, Mishra sought the suspension of the NGO from operating SAA Kanker with immediate effect as well as cancel of registration of the NGO.
Mishra, in the report, also recommended disciplinary action against Reena Ladia, District Child Protection Officer.
As per the report, during the inspection on Sunday, Dwivedi admitted the video clip belonged to SAA Kanker and claimed it happened around a year ago.
"Dwivedi said in her statement she thrashed the two girls of the facility as her mental status was not sound then. She also said despite repeated warnings one of the girls used to accept chocolates from unidentified persons while returning from the Anganwadi centre," the report said.
As per the report, Dwivedi apologised for the act and claimed such an incident has never been repeated at the facility.
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Traffic fraud: Fake 'no-entry' sticker racket busted in Delhi, mastermind among 3 held
New Delhi (PTI): Police here have busted a crime syndicate involved in traffic fraud and extortion, arresting three people including the alleged mastermind who sold fake stickers to help commercial vehicles bypass no-entry restrictions, an official said on Saturday.
The police said they dismantled a third organised syndicate linked to traffic-related frauds, with the arrest of Rinku Rana alias Bhushan, his associate Sonu Sharma and Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, who was also connected to another extortion syndicate.
According to the police, Rinku Rana was running a well-organised network that facilitated the movement of commercial goods vehicles during restricted hours by selling fake 'marka' or stickers for Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 per vehicle every month. The stickers were falsely projected as authorisation to evade traffic challans.
During raids, the police recovered Rs 31 lakh in cash, property documents worth several crores of rupees, over 500 fake stickers and six mobile phones allegedly used to operate the syndicate.
The crackdown followed a complaint filed by a traffic police officer in April this year after a commercial vehicle tried to evade checking by producing a fake sticker claiming exemption from enforcement action.
Investigation revealed that social media groups were being used to coordinate the illegal movement of vehicles and alert drivers about traffic police checkpoints, police said.
"A parallel system was being run to cheat drivers and vehicle owners while undermining traffic enforcement. On the basis of evidence, provisions related to organised crime under the BNS were invoked," a senior police officer said.
Sonu Sharma, the police said, managed social media groups through which stickers were sold and real-time alerts were circulated regarding traffic police movement. He also acted as a link between Rana and drivers operating in the field.
In a related development, Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, an associate of Rajkumar alias Raju Meena, who was earlier arrested under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), was also apprehended.
Mukesh allegedly helped extort money from transporters and was involved in blackmailing traffic police personnel by recording enforcement actions, the police said.
Investigators alleged the syndicate led by Rajkumar deployed drivers to deliberately violate traffic rules and secretly record police officials during challans, later using manipulated videos to extort money under threat of false allegations.
The police said that in total, eight accused belonging to three different organised crime syndicates linked to traffic frauds and extortion have been arrested so far.
Further investigation is underway to trace the remaining members, conduct financial probes, and analyse digital evidence recovered during the raids, officials added.
