New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh chief minister has constituted a special investigation team (SIT) to check tampering of evidence, as well as collect evidence, till the CBI takes over the case of sexual abuse of girls of the shelter home — MaaVindhyavasiniMahila and Balika Sanrakshan Grih. The Special Task Force (STF) will assist SIT in collecting evidence.  Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh government late on Tuesday night recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the alleged sex racket run by a shelter home in Deoria.

Addressing a press conference, chief minister Yogi Adityanath said a two-member committee, constituted by the state government to probe the working of the shelter home, submitted its report on Tuesday.

Yogi said the shelter home was being run by the NGO since 2009 and large grants were given to it during the Samajwadi Party government. The SP government had appointed members of the district child welfare committee, who were close to ‘people in power’, he added.

Yogi said the members of the child welfare committee were also involved in the racket. “The involvement of the previous governments in the shelter home racket has come to light. The state government has decided to recommend a CBI probe into the working of the shelter home so that everything becomes crystal clear,” he said.

The CM said that after the CBI detected large-scale irregularities in the ‘SachalPalnaGriha’ scheme run by NGOs in different districts in 2016, the state government cancelled the recognition of the Deoria shelter home. The district administration was directed to close down the home and shift the children to another accommodation. “But no action was taken by the district administration,” he said.

“The sex racket was being run by the shelter home since the time of earlier governments. Now, due to the action taken by the BJP government, the fact has come to light and the people running the shelter home have been arrested,” he said.