The Delhi Police have registered an FIR against officials of a state-run shelter home for allegedly molesting the inmates, who are mostly teenage girls, torturing them and injecting them with growth hormones, Hindustan Times reported on Monday. They lodged the complaint on April 16 after the Delhi Commission for Women took note of the matter. Investigators are looking into the syringe marks on the inmates’ bodies and conducting a medical examination.

The matter first came to light earlier in April when one of the girls wrote a letter to the Delhi Legal Services Authority, alleging human rights violations and torture. This was followed by similar complaints by nine others, after which the authority alerted the DCW.

On April 8, DCW chief Swati Maliwal (pictured above) visited the shelter home in west Delhi. Later, she apprised Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik about the matter.

Maliwal’s team has alleged that the girls had accused the shelter home staff of beating and harassing them. Besides alleging that they were starved, the girls also said they were given an oxytocin-type substance that stimulates changes in the body. It is very popular among human traffickers.

In her complaint, the women’s commission chief added that the staff had locked the door and refused to let her enter when she went to meet the girls the second time.