E&E NEWS-Shikha Verma 10/08/2018

Months after shelter home was de-recognised, Girija Tripathi continued to participate in government functions
Not only did the district police continue to send new inmates, including minor girls, to the shelter home in Deoria after it was de-recognised for its financial irregularities, but its supervisor Girija Tripathi continued to participate in official functions — even after the government’s order to shut down the institution.




The shelter home has come now under the scanner for alleged sexual exploitation of its inmates.

On February 9 this year, eight months after her shelter home was de-recognised following financial irregularities detected by the CBI, Ms. Tripathi was invited by the administration to find couples for a mass marriage event organised by the social welfare department of the U.P. government.

Chosen one
Sources said her NGO was chosen out of the five short-listed. Over fifty couples were married at the event, which was attended by U.P. Cabinet Minister Surya Pratap Shahi, newspaper reports of that date show.

ADM (Finance) S. R Gupta confirmed that Ms. Tripathi did participate in mass marriage events of the government as late as in 2018. While the senior official failed to explain why the NGO was picked, he clarified that “no funds were transferred” to the organisation for being one of the organisers. Now under arrest for alleged sexual exploitation of inmates in her shelter home, Ms. Tripathi enjoyed considerable goodwill and clout among the local administration and the police, who honoured her on many occasions