Noida Police and the Uttar Pradesh State Women's Commission team raided an old-age home in Noida on Thursday and rescued 39 senior citizens, who were locked in the rooms with no staff to take care of them.
The raided old-age facility is situated at Sector 55's Anand Niketan Vridha Ashram. The action was taken after a video of the despair went viral on social media and was sent to the Social Welfare Department of Lucknow.
In the video, a woman was kept in a room with her hands tied. Upon reaching the facility, the officials found out that some of the elderly people were tied up in their clothes while being locked inside the room.
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Narrating the ordeal of the elderly, State Women Commission member Meenakshi Bharala said that some of the old men in the facility were locked inside a basement-like room, with most of the men not wearing clothes.
Some of the women were having only partial clothes. Even the clothes they were wearing had urine and feces stains on them. The officials also found out that there was no proper staff to take care of the elderly. According to reports, one employee of the old age home was acting as a nurse but was educated up to class 12 only.
The officials have been directed to seal the facility and transfer all 39 rescued citizens to another facility. The officials also found out the misappropriation of money taken from the families of these citizens.
Bharala said that the facility took Rs 2.5 lakh from the families of each elderly apart from a Rs 20,000 security deposit. On top of that, a monthly amount of Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000 was also charged for their food and shelter.