Lalitpur, August 17:

Medical reports on three girls, whom a deranged man had taken captive in Bungmati and behaved inhumanely, states they were physically tortured, said Bharat Adhikary, the programme officer of the Child Workers in Nepal Concerned Centre (CWIN) Hotline.

NGOs and the Women’s Cell had freed the girls and a woman from captivity on August 10. According to him, doctors expressed their inability to verify whether the girls were sexually abused “as they were not well-equipped”. Mahila Shakya, the deranged man, was sent to the Patan Mental Hospital on Monday, Kopila Chundal, the sub-inspector at the Lalitpur Women’s Cell, said.

“He was sent to the mental hospital as his behaviour was found to be abnormal,” Chundal said. Stating that “the girls have been kept at a shelter run by the CWIN,” Adhikary said: “They were undernourished and diagnosed with skin problems.” The oldest girl, aged 10 years, is mentally retarded. She was taken to the Model hospital today for further check-up. Other girls are aged four and six years. Mahila is the father of the six-year-old girl, a family source said.