Shelter owner, lover arrested for forcing minor to watch sex acts

Coimbatore: A 45-year-old founder of a shelter home for poor children and his 28-year-old girlfriend were arrested for forcing a 14-year-old girl inmate watch their sexual acts for the past one year.
The arrested were identified as Vilankurichi T Jegan, of Maniyakarampalayam near Ganapathy, and K Chitra, of Vilankurichi. Jegan owned the shelter home named Mahatma Karunai Illam.
Police said the girl, a Class 8 student, had revealed the incident to her school headmaster.Thudiyalur all-woman police station were informed and they alerted the child line about the same. Following this, the district child protection officer rescued 11 children from the shelter home and shifted them to other homes.
The authorities also shut down the shelter home as it had been functioning without government permission.
Jegan, police said, set up the home for poor children some four years ago. Chitra joined as a warden three years back and she also used to cook for the children. Seven boys and four girls, all students of a nearby government high school, were staying at the shelter.
Based on the school headmaster's compliant, Thudiyalur all-woman police rushed to the shelter home and gathered details from the minor girl. She told police that the pair had threatened her with dire consequences if she were to reveal the incident to anybody.
Preliminary inquiries revealed that the girl's parents, employed with a textile unit in Tirupur, admitted her to the shelter home as they were not in a position to afford her studies. "The girl was mentally depressed after the episode. We have questioned the duo and they have confessed to the crime," Amudha said.
The duo was booked under Sections 7,8,11(i), 12 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act 2012 and Section 501 (i) (criminal intimidation) of the IPC and sent to Coimbatore Central Prison.