The Superintendent of Police of Deoria and the district's former police chief were both shunted on Wednesday more than a week after two dozen girls were rescued from an illegally-run shelter home following allegations of mistreatment and sexual exploitation of inmates.
The government, however, did not provide a reason for the decision.
Prima facie, the government had found the local administration responsible for the incident and after removing the District Magistrate and three probation officers, has turned its radar on the police force.
SP Deoria Rohan P. Kanay and DIG Basti Range Rakesh Shankar have both been attached to the Director General of Police headquarters.
Mr. Kanay had raided the shelter home and recovered the girls after a minor girl, a native of Bettiah in Bihar, escaped from the shelter home and narrated her ordeal to the police. Mr. Shankar was the previous SP of Deoria under whose tenure Girija Tripathi, the supervisor of the shelter home, allegedly had a free hand in functioning even against adverse orders by the State government.
Departmental action
The two IPS officers could also face departmental action.
Mr. Shankar also enjoyed proximity to Ms. Tripathi and her family and had appointed her as the main coordinator of a police project under which a compromise programme was held to sort out differences between quarrelling spouses.
Ground reports by The Hindu suggest that despite orders by the State government to shut down the shelter home, the local police and administration continued to send inmates there, including minor girls, as recently as mid-July, and engaged the shelter home owner in official functions, including one for a mass marriage programme in February 2018.
The shelter home was derecognised in June 2017 after the Central Bureau of Investigation found financial irregularities in a probe.
Ashutosh Kumar has been appointed the new DIG of Basti Range while N. Kolanchi, SP Mahoba, is the new police chief of Deoria.
While an SIT is probing the entire incident, a probe is also under way under ADG Gorakhpur to investigate the role of the police.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has recommended a CBI probe.
