Mulky-(Mangalore), Apr 3:
Mulki: The women and children welfare department officials led by Asha Nayak on Saturday raided Ebenezer Mercy Home,said to be the centre run by the Pentecostal community of Christians and situated on the Haleangady-Pakshikere road. The officials took into their custody twentynine children who were allegedly being ill-treated in the hostel.Later the children were shifted to the remand home.

It all started with media reports a few days ago with a complaint from the residents that effluent water from the prayer centre was being released to the roads, causing inconvenience and creating health hazards.It is said that over the past four years the centre was being run under the control of Bethel ministry of Bangalore.Twenty eight children were reportedly staying in the centre without any records out of which- 18 children from Karnataka, 7 from Bihar and rest from other states.

The Centre's Version

However, K J Joy along with wife Elizabeth and son Joel and Joby, who supervised the centre, said that they had been looking after the children at the request of their parents and guardians. He said that they looked after needy children entirely with the help of donations. he also explained that their ministry has over 30 such support centres. Sujay,one of the inmates, said they were being well cared for.

Joy also said that in the mornings and evenings, the children have been taught English and Music by nine staffers,affiliated to Bangalre Theological Society. Out of them six, besides another person, have been taken into custody by the Mulki police, who were accused of sexually harassing a 10-year-old girl.

CDPO Shyamala, ZP member Ishwar Kateel, cild welfare committee head Asha Nayak, Police circle inspector Shivaprakash Nayak, Mulki police inspector Muniswamy Neelakanthan and others were present on the occasion.

The Locals Version

Some other locals gave another version. They said a group of men belonging to an organization barged into the centre first on the pretext of verifying the kind of activities going on there and assaulted the centre head and his son and also snatched a mobile phone from them. The police and others are said to have intervened later.

Speaking to the media, Asha Nayak said that children of age group of between 4 and 14 were being kept in a single-storied building. There were also boys and girls of above 18 years. There had been complaints that they were not being not fed well and were being subjected to physical assault. She said that because of lack of hygiene, some of them had skin ailments. She added that the children would be taken to Mangalore for better care and attention.

Nayak further said that even though the organization had been operating for the last four years, it had not been registered with any department or agency. Since there were no records of medical nature or attendance or admission nor any attendance register maintained, she said the centre had to be categorized as unauthorized. A complaint to the police also would be filed, she said.

The Mulki police, upon being enquired, said that they had received a complaint regarding polluted water from the centre being let out to the road, affecting the neighbourhood. On Saturday, over a hundred members of the public went to sort out the matter with the head of the centre. Joy reportedly objected to interference. So the police had to rush to the spot and maintain peace.

On the other hand, Joel told the mediapersons that giving shelter and a sense of direction to the needy and poor children was the sole objective of the centre. They have already purchased 15 acres of land in Haleyangady and the registration was in process. On receiving a complaint from locals, the panchayat staff had been inspecting the spot for 2 or 3 days. However, on Saturday, some persons forcibly entered the premises, assaulted his father and brother and snatched a mobile from them, he alleged.