11 flee from Howrah juvenile home

HOWRAH: Eleven inmates escaped from a juvenile home in Howrah’s Panchla on Sunday morning. Though one of them was spotted at Dhulagarh later in the day and brought back to the home, the rest are still absconding.
In the wee hours of Sunday, the boys — all aged between 11 and 16 years — fled after breaking open the lock of the kitchen and then scaling the boundary wall of the home.Sources said some of the boys are from Bangladesh. “Some of them were found to be addicts and were picked up from the Howrah station premises,” said sources.
The authorities of the home, run by an NGO, came to know about the escape after some locals informed them. Soon, they lodged a complaint with the Panchla police and started a search operation. One of the missing boys was later rescued from Dhulagarh, about seven to eight kilometres from the home. He has hearing and speech problems. The locals have informed the police that they have seen 10 boys running towards Ranihati along the NH6.
Baniprasad Das, SDO (headquarters), Howrah said that the district social welfare official has started a probe to find out whether there was any fault on the home authorities’ part.
“There is a lack of infrastructure in the home and security arrangement too is not adequate,” said Ashokendu Sengupta, chairman of state-level inspection team on homes.
An official said that there are 37 women in the home also and one of them had fled earlier.