Founder of children home in custody for rape of minor residents
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, March 11 2015:
A middle-aged man who runs a children home in Rengkai Bethlehem Veng in Churachandpur was arrested by police after complaints by two minor girls who were residents of the home that they were raped by him.
According to the statements provided by the victims, who are both students of Class X and aged around 15 years, Timothy L Changsang, the founder of the children home, subjected them to physical assaults and intimidations to malign their characters in order to shut them up.
The accused who is a married man with two kids and operates the children home at his own house has been put in custody at Churachandpur Police Station after the duo garnered the courage to flee the home with five other girls on February 25 last and reported the crime to the police.
The seven girls have been sheltered at a government destitute home in Churachandpur at present.
During a meeting with the children arranged by Manipur Alliance for Child Rights, the first victim told media persons that she had been living at the children home for around ten years.
She said Timothy started sexually abusing her around September, 2013 .
Since then she was repeatedly raped by him.
She was also threatened with dire consequences if the matter was disclosed to any other person.
The stern warnings made her too frightened to speak about his pervert behaviors to anybody and she kept it a secret for a long time.
However, she finally broke her silence some time last year and talked about it to a couple of friends.
In January this year, the girl sent a written request to Timothy to stop the sexual assaults and when he did not listen to her pleas she reported the matter to the warden of the home.
The second victim said she was raped more than five times by Timothy.
He beat her too and warned of serious thrashing if she did not keep her mouth shut.
The remaining five girls who are also of the same age group accompanied the two in fleeing the home driven by the fear they could also become prey of his sexual desires, she said.
Convener of MACR Keisham Pradipkumar raised the possibility that other girls at the children home might have met the same fate as the two victims in the past.
He appealed to the administration and the Manipur Commission for Protection of Child Rights to utilize their resources and conduct thorough probes into the charges leveled against the founder of the children home so that the complete truth becomes known.
He further demanded extra security at the destitute home where the children are currently lodged or arrangement of an alternative safer accommodation for them.
The government should exercise its power vested by law of the Juvenile Justice system and examine the working conditions at other children homes in the state, he stated.
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