Jhajjar :
Deputy Commissioner (DC) Sonal Goel has ordered an inquiry into the escaping of four teenaged girl inmates from Umang, a shelter home for destitute children, on the intervening night of August 16 and 17.

“A three-member committee, comprising Bahadurgarh SDM and DSP and Chief Executive Officer, Zila Parishad, has been constituted to inquire into the incident. The committee has been directed to submit its report within a week,” said sources.

The shelter home, being run under the Haryana State Child Welfare Council (HSCWC), has 22 inmates and most of them are either abandoned children or orphans and some employees have been deputed there to run the shelter home.

The incident came to light on Friday when the employees found four inmates missing during morning attendance. They immediately informed the police and the police traced three girls from Faridabad and one from Sonepat within 24 hours.

Sources said the girls went to Panipat from Bahadurgarh and three of them took a train for Mumbai. They reportedly planned to go to Mumbai to find jobs there. The trio was recovered from Faridabad railway station and sent to Nari Niketen in Karnal, while the fourth was handed over to her family members.

“Preliminary inquiry has revealed that the girls used a wooden ladder to scale 10-foot-high outer wall of the shelter home. The ladder is being used to facilitate construction works being carried out in the shelter home these days. Though a watchman was on the duty at the time of the incident, but he was asleep,” said the sources.

The DC said escaping of the girls from the shelter home was a serious issue hence a thorough inquiry was needed to ascertain the reasons behind the negligence. “Appropriate action will be taken against the guilty,” she added.