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I am sure all of us must have seen block buster film Page 3…and being part of Media fraternity, I can say that story was absolutely true…lot of time reports are removed from front page of the newspaper or from the News Run down of the News Channel…

Though it does not happen all the time but in some special cases it does happen…like what we saw in Page 3…how Big Business man was caught red handed by News Paper reporter but the story could not make the headline for obvious reasons…link with top brass of the News paper…

Today I will tell you a real story of a reporter working with Indian number one English News channel, who tried reporting on same issue…

“Sodomy of young boys by top brass of a one of the oldest orphanage in Capital of this country…. ‘Bal Sahyog’
Bal Sahyog…a Social Welfare Organization founded by late Smt. Indira Gandhi in 1954 with a view to make the underprivileged children of Delhi mainly from JJ clusters and also the poor children who run away from their homes and loiters around Railway Stations and other places in Delhi self reliant by providing them Vocational Training with School Education.
September’ 10 2006, an email from Bal Sahyog complaining of corruption charges, Sexual Harassment and Mental Torture by the Director of Bal Sahyog came to Editor of Special Investigative Team of this News Channel, and this email was further forwarded to a young fiery reporter of the team and reporter was told to Investigate this email and to cull out the truth behind this email…

Reporter responded to this anonyms email and requested to provide more information regarding the same issue as the allegations are very serious. On September 12 2006 this response came from same email address…

Hi Sidharth Dated; September, 12 2006’,
Thanks for your e-mail. Kindly give your mobile no. so that we will call you and will provide you the copies of all the concerned documents. In fact , when the Director came to know that we had approached media then in order to divide the staff he gave out of turn increment to Ms. Madhu Srivastava and S.P.Sharma. Therefore, they will not provide any information rather praise the Director.

Bal Sahyog has six contact clubs at Kotla Mubarakpur, Wajirpur, Paharganj Nangloi, Karolbagh, Inderpuri etc. The Director made Madhu Srivastav Cordinator of these contact clubs and also in-charge of Day Care Centre. That's why she didn't provide you any information when you spoken to her.

Bal Sahyog also gets grant of around Rs. 8-10 lakhs from Ministry of Social Welfare, Govt. of Delhi by showing 300 kids at these contact clubs. But when you will visit these centres without informing them you will hardly find 3-4 children at these centres and no activities are being carried out. The Director has been making lot of money from these centres .This is also to be investigated. And Madhu Srivastava is party with the Director in these activities.

If possible, you come to Bal Sahyog this Saturday. (Names deleted to hide the identity whistle blower) will provide you more information.

Or you can call (Name Deleted to hide the identity of source) at 011-23411995, 23411273 without telling to the person who takes the call that you were from media. She would provide you all the details.

In fact, most of the staff are scared in discussing with media in the campus.

You can discuss these with Kake Da Hotel, Tewari Broths, Raj Cool Centres about the activities of Director of Bal Sahyog. These shops are just located outside the Gate of Bal Sahyog. And they are also victim of highhandedness of the Director.

This response from Staff of Bal Sahyog became the strong base for the Investigation, as these people were desperate to blow the whistle and expose wrong doings of the Director…few days later reporter met people who wrote this mail and had a detailed chat on the issue, their claims were very convincing rather reporter was told by one of the woman present in the meeting that Director Bal Sahyog misbehaved with them at many occasions and they are scared of meeting him alone even in his office in Bal Sahyog…

Reporter started meeting these people everyday and get more and more information about Bal Sahyog and find out what is the truth…after Investigating for two Months, reporter got to know that Director of Bal Sahyog is also Director in one more orphanage ‘Karm Marg’ and he started parallel Investigation on Karm Marg, he found out that there were same allegation on Director by some girls who took shelter in Karm-Marg.

Now, the allegation of sexual harassment on Director Bal Sahyog ‘Devender Sethi’ turned out to be truth, as few girls who were in their mid 20ties and were part of Karm Marg at some point in time when they were in their teens gave their On-Cam testimony to me, narrating how were told to sit on the Lap of Devender Sethi and were shown Blue-film and through out the show they were touched all over…

These girls were so young that they didn’t even knew that they were been harassed by mentally ill man…

During this Investigation when reporter was trying to hear more voices from the girls who have gone through this pain in their teens…he met Sunita (name changed) smack addict, at the bank of New Delhi Railway station, where all the rag-pickers do smack…Sunita (name changed) was also one of the Victim of Devender Sethi when she was living in Karm-Marg and even she had same story to tell…reporter was almost in tears after talking to her. When reporter met Sunita (name changed) she was almost counting her life backwards as she was literally living on smack, she spoke to him in length (on-cam)

Fact of the matter is, these children, who end up being soft targets of child abuse, live in children's homes.

Bal Sahyog, a home for juvenile boys in Delhi, is one such cesspool of abuse.

Sachin (name changed) who ran away from Bal Sahyog told reporter that they are been treated as animal by staff of Bal Sahyog, he was in tears remembering how he was beaten up badly and was locked in the room for hours by the staff member of Bal Sahyog, when somebody took his name for some mischief after which he left Bal Sahyog leaving one letter behind that he can not take it any more…these days Sachin (name changed) works as a rag picker at New Delhi Railway Station and doesn’t want to go back to Bal Sahyog.

Sachin (name changed) was not the only boy who ran away from Bal Sahyog, there is a letter from the Child Welfare Committee to the Director of Bal Sahyog which shows that five to seven children who were brought to Bal Sahyog in May 2006 were missing. And Sachin (name changed) was one of the boy who this reporter tracked down.However, the director of Bal Sahyog, Devendre, shrugs it off the claim. And He said, “There are two gates. Wo bachcha kabhi bhi slip ho kay bahar nikal gaya. (Children ran away as there are two gates in the home.)”Children living at Bal Sahyog are often victims of other form of abuse as well. Raju (name changed) who stays in Bal Sahyog told reporter, older inmates sodomizing younger boys and the children are also falling prey to substance abuse. The administration however, is just not bothered.

After such hard-hitting detail reporter went back to his Editor and filed the story, which came in to controversy even before it was put on air…as Director Bal Sahyog Devender Sethi got whiff that, this reporter has got countless proof of his sexual harassment and before story went on air, fleet of Page 3 people entered office of this English News Channel and straight away had a tea with top honchos of News Channel and after long meeting blame was put on the reporter and top brass was convinced that its baseless report and Devender Sethi is a man with lot of respect regardless of all the testimonies this reporter got from the field…

And channel took decision to remove the story from web site of the channel and instruction were given not to play this story ever again…nobody asked reporter what is his take and what are his findings…

Devender Sethi, was removed from the designation of Director from Bal Sahyog, people say that he has left Delhi after that story…but the reporter who covered this story is still living with the pain of how he became victim of powerful Page 3 people…