Girl With HIV Raped, Forced To Abort At Maharashtra Children's Home
An HIV-infected girl has alleged that she was raped for two years at a children's shelter in Maharashtra's Latur and was forced to undergo an abortion.
In her police complaint, the 16-year-old said that she was raped by an employee four times between July 13, 2023 and July 23 this year at Sevalay, a shelter home for HIV-infected children.
She was taken to a hospital after she fell ill, where tests revealed that she was four months pregnant.
The accused then got a doctor who performed an abortion procedure without her consent, the news agency PTI reported, citing an official.
"She was also threatened not to disclose the ordeal to anyone," the official said.
The girl then wrote a letter to officials and dropped it into a complaint box. The institution's management, however, did not help her and tore up the letter, the official said.
Sevalay's founder, Ravi Bapatle, superintendent, Rachna Bapatle, and employees Amit Mahamuni and Pooja Waghmare are among those arrested.
Sevalay, whose tagline is a "happy home of children", houses 23 boys and seven girls, all of whom are HIV infected, according to its website.
All the workers in the institution work for free, the website said.
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