Three officials of Jalna hostel booked

AURANGABAD: Jalna police on Saturday night booked three top officials of Shankarlal Mundada Mentally Retarded Boys’ Hostel who are allegedly responsible for the death of a five-year-old special boy.

Krishna died of malnutrition in Jalna civil hospital on Thursday.

The police have registered a case under sections 303 A and 34 A of the Indian Penal Code. The trio were later arrested and released on bail.

Surprisingly, the name of former cooperation minister Dr Jaiprakash Mundada (of Manohar Joshi cabinet in 1995) was not mentioned in the case even though he is the chairman of the Maharashtra Marwadi Charitable Trust which runs the hostel at Jalna.
The Women and Child Welfare Department (WCWD) officers, however, said that Dr Mundada was not looking after the day-to-day management of the hostel.

On Saturday, assistant commissioner of the WCWD, VD Marathe rushed to Jalna from Pune and investigated the hostel’s condition. In the evening, he attended a meeting at the district collector’s office where district collector RD Shinde, civil surgeon Dr Arun Tekade, chief officer of Jalna Zilla Parishad Dr Shaligram Wankhede and WCWD district officer RD Kulkarni were present.

Marathe went to Sadar Bazar police station late night on Saturday and filed the complaint against the secretary of the trust and chief administrative officer Virendra Dhoka, administrator Sarla Bagala and Superintendent Tanaji Kasbe.

Kasbe had said that all 30 inmates of the hostel had gone to their native places for Diwali. Seventeen of them were brought back to the hostel on Saturday for medical check up. Of them, two were found to be in a serious condition and they were admitted to the government medical  college hospital at Aurangabad.

WCWD district officer Kulkarni confirmed that 15 boys in the hostel are suffering from malnutrition. They have been kept under medical observation.

Dr Mundada told DNA that though he is the chairman of the trust, he does not look into the hostel administration.

Secretary of the trust Virendra Dhoka, who holds the power of attorney of the hostel, looks after its management.

Dr Mundada further said, “We provide standard food to the boys in the hostel. We treat them like our own children, but they never eat the food because they are mentally retarded. The Swajal hostel at Solapur had written a letter saying that we should take responsibility of six children as there are no medical facilities in the radius of 80 km around the hostel in Solapur district. On the ground of humanity, the Jalna hostel had
accepted them.”