With the exposure of the Deoria Girls’ Shelter Home sexual violence story on similar lines to that in the Muzaffarpur Shelter home in Bihar, the CPI(ML) demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and called for statewide protests on 8 August 2018. Earlier, on the day following the breaking of the story in newspapers, the AIPWA District unit at Deoria held protests and burnt the CM’s effigy on 7 August. On 8 August a march was held in Lucknow from Lalkuan to the Hussainganj Chowk where the CM’s effigy was burnt. On the same day a protest march was again held at Deoria starting from the AIPWA office and culminating at the District HQ where a memorandum addressed to the Governer was submitted.
Through these protests demands were made for the resignation of the Yogi government, a CBI enquiry into the matter monitored by the High Court, the missing girls to be produced, and strict action against and punishment for the guilty.
Protest marches, meetings and effigy burnings were also organized at Varanasi and Mau where effigies were burnt and resignations of CM Adityanath and women welfare minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi were demanded. In Ghazipur District protests were organized at Jamania, Bhadora and Khanpur and memorandums were submitted to the District Magistrate. A protest was held at Mirzapur. The CPI(ML), AIPWA and RYA protested jointly at Sakaldiha and Chahaniya in Chandauli District. Protests were also organized at Raebareli, Lakhimpur Kheeri, Urai in Jalaun, Mathura, Kanpur and Allahabad.
Meanwhile, a CPI(ML) comprised of State Committee members Om Prakash Singh and Shriram Chaudhary along with local comrades visited that shelter home in Deoria which has been sealed now. Local people told them that persons in luxury vehicles (maybe officials or political leaders) used to frequent the place in the evenings. The girls have been sent to the Shelter Home in Varanasi by the administration.
