Kavitha* leads us from her single room house in Bowenpally in Secunderabad to the shade of a cowshed just outside. Once we take our seats, she starts looking through her phone for a picture of Cathy* taken over a year ago. “Look at her, she looks healthy right?” she asks. The photo shows a petite 13-year-old in an orange frock looking away from the frame, smiling at someone beyond the frame of the camera.
Cathy died in the early hours of August 12, after being on a ventilator for a few days preceding that. She had allegedly been sexually abused for a year at Maruthi orphanage in Rangareddy district of Telangana, where she had been living after her mother’s death when she was nine years old. For a few days in a year, Cathy would come and stay with her maternal aunt, Kavitha, and an uncle who lives in Jeedimetla police station limits. No one knows where her father is.
When Cathy died, there were not many to mourn for her in the hamlet Kavitha lives in, hidden away behind a small church under Bowenpally police station limits. In fact, Kavitha’s relatives point fingers at her for bringing media attention to the locality. But Kavitha wants justice for the 14-year-old. She is struggling to come to terms with the death of this child, who was in the care of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) when she took her last breath. Kavitha does not know what led to her death. “She had no one, not even us when all this happened,” says the homemaker, just before showing the last picture of Cathy taken before her demise.
Cathy had neck-length hair in this photo, and she stood leaning against the wall bathed in evening sunlight. She was wearing a peach coloured plain frock and was caught in the frame, again half smiling. However, this time, she appeared a lot thinner, her eyes sunken, her bones jutting out from her hands and limbs.
“She was unable to even walk when we met her, she couldn't even sit on a bike,” says Kavitha. She and her husband had gone to receive Cathy from her uncle's residence in Jeedimetla on July 29. “She would vomit and have bouts of diarrhoea. She would walk awkwardly, with her legs too far apart, and could only move a few feet without assistance. She was fine until a year ago, a happy child who would stay with me for some days every year,” says the aunt.
When the COVID-19 related lockdown was imposed, Maruthi orphanage had sent Cathy to her uncle’s place. Kavitha says Cathy’s uncle worked in the catering business, and was out of a job since the lockdown, struggling to make ends meet. “So, he tried to get Cathy enrolled back at Maruthi orphanage three times during the lockdown. The third time was on July 29. That's when my husband, John, and I got involved,” Kavitha says.
Kavitha was alarmed seeing Cathy’s condition, but she first became suspicious that something had happened at the Maruthi orphanage when the warden Vijaya tried to explain Cathy’s limp. “She kept saying Cathy was limping because of a head injury due to a fall in the bathroom four months ago. They applied turmeric and the wound had healed, but that didn't explain the limp. We didn’t know at the time what they had done to her,” says Kavitha.
When Cathy disclosed the abuse
On the evening of July 30, Kavitha sat down with Cathy on the steps of their home at Bowenpally. “I took her hands in mine and asked her to tell me how she got those injuries and why she was limping,” recounts Kavitha, who also assured the child that she is in a safe space. “I assured Cathy that nothing will happen to her and that she should have faith in god. Then Cathy told me everything. That night, when I cried, it was she who comforted me. She asked me not to cry, and reminded me about having faith in god.”
The next day, Kavitha filed a zero FIR with the Bowenpally police station naming Naredla Venugopal Reddy, who used to be a regular financial donor to Maruthi orphanage; the hostel owner and warden, Chielukuri Vijaya; and her brother, Surapaneni Jayadeep, as the accused. The Ameenpur police of Rangareddy district arrested the three persons.
Venugopal is accused of sexually abusing Cathy for close to a year. “Cathy said she saw Venugopal give money to the hostel warden each time he visited the orphanage. They would ask her to go to the fifth floor of the building where they had a storeroom and a bedroom. Cathy was allegedly forced to go to the bedroom and drink a juice. She would fall unconscious, and would not know what happened thereafter. But her clothes were always gone when she would be awoken a few hours later by her friends,” Kavitha tells TNM.
Cathy did try to reach out to her uncle for help, but the hostel warden allegedly misled the child. “She was fooled. The hostel warden pretended to dial her uncle, but it was the hostel cook who pretended to be him and spoke to Cathy,” alleges Kavitha.
It took the police over six hours to record her statement on July 31, “She did not cry, she stood like a rock. The next day, on August 1 when she gave her statement to the SHE police team at a Bharosa centre. They did the medical exam that day,” says Kavitha. “But she wept on August 3 at Sakhi centre when CWC officials took her statement.” That was the last time Kavitha had contact with the child, before the CWC officials took her away for treatment.
When the CWC took her away for treatment
Kavitha is struggling to come to terms with Cathy's deaths and expresses regret in handing over Cathy's care to the government. “We are not financially well off, so we were collecting money from every relative for her treatment.”
“They asked us to sign a letter stating we will not be able to take care of the girl. The officials said they will be able to provide her better treatment, so I signed the letter and they took her away. It was a mistake, I made a mistake signing the letter,” rues Kavitha.
The CWC had moved Cathy to a Government Child Home for Girls at Nimboliadda on August 3. The same day, officials also shifted the 50 other girls from Maruthi orphanage to three different premises at various locations, from where they were shifted to other Child Care Institutes.
“We called the CWC official on August 6. They didn't give us any information about Cathy,” alleges Kavitha.
Kavitha received a call from a CWC official on August 8 saying Cathy's health has deteriorated. “They didn’t give us any further information and on August 10, the official said she is on a ventilator. We reached the hospital at around 8:30 pm. But her body was already cold. The only sign of life was her lungs heaving to the ventilator. The patient attendee from the Nimboliadda CCI didn’t allow us to talk to the duty doctor. We don’t know what happened to her that her health suddenly worsened. We are waiting for the post mortem report,” Kavitha says.
Incidentally, the CWC officials have also lodged a complaint with Jeedimetla police station against Cathy’s uncle and his wife alleging it was them who physically abused Cathy.
Lack of clarity on what the treatment was for
While the Women and Child Welfare Department has formed a high-power committee to conduct an enquiry into the case, like the Rangareddy police, the committee is also waiting for Cathy’s post-mortem report. Everyone is tight lipped about what exactly were the conditions that Cathy was undergoing treatment for.
Speaking to TNM, a government official who met Cathy on August 3 says, “She seemed healthy, but told us she hadn’t eaten in three days. Her aunt says this is because she vomits all the food. We cooked her some chapatis, gave biscuits and mango juice.”
The officer also dismissed allegations of coercion by the CWC to hand over the child from the aunt’s care. “There is nothing like that. The aunt gave us in writing in the presence of another family member that the family can’t take care of Cathy.” The official said efforts are on by the high-power committee to interview the other girls who were residing at Maruthi orphanage.
Kavitha too does not know what it was that ultimately led to Cathy’s demise. As she is speaking, a contingent of political leaders walked into the hamlet, creating a frenzy among relatives for arranging chairs. As Kavitha escorted the contingent her husband, John, a music teacher by profession who was sitting quietly until then listening to his wife talk about Cathy, says, “I always saw her from a distance, never took an effort to get to know her. She used to be part of the church choir and used to sing well; she could recall the lyrics very easily. She was a brilliant student, I knew that much.”