New Delhi, Aug 7 (NIE): Facing flak over alleged sexual exploitation of 24 girls in a shelter home in Uttar Pradesh’s Deoria, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday handed over the investigation to CBI. Meanwhile, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was also formed under ADG Crime to probe the case.

Adityanath had on Tuesday said that CBI had informed about financial irregularities in the shelter home in 2015-16 when the BJP government came to power in the state in 2017. “District administration did not act on time, so DM was transferred and today we have decided to chargesheet him,” Adityanath added.

Police on Monday had rescued 24 girls from the shelter home after allegations of their sexual exploitation. A couple who were the managers at the shelter home and its superintendent have been arrested.

Earlier in the day, opposition parties SP, RJD and the CPI staged a protest outside Parliament demanding a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the alleged atrocities against young girls in shelter homes at Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district and UP’s Deoria district. They also took a potshot at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his slogan of ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’, alleging girls are not safe in the country. “We demand a Supreme Court-monitored probe into what has happened in the shelter homes in the two states and want the report to be presented in three months,” RJD Lok Sabha MP Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav told reporters outside Parliament.