A former inmate of Uttar Raksha Grih, a shelter home for destitute women at Gaighat in Bihar’s capital, on Friday moved the Patna High Court, seeking its intervention to lodge an FIR (first information report) against poor state of affairs at the facility and alleged sexual exploitation of inmates, according to her lawyer.

Last month, a video clip, purportedly of the same woman, had gone viral on social media where she is heard explaining the alleged sexual abuse of inmates by outsiders in connivance with the local staff and its in-charge superintendent.

The HC had intervened and sought the state government’s reply before the next hearing scheduled for coming Monday.

Advocate Minu Kumari, who filed the petition in the HC on the woman’s behalf on Friday, said she has demanded a detailed probe into the affairs of the shelter home and alleged the district administration did not help her lodge the FIR in the matter even as a petition was submitted to the Patna district magistrate on January 31 against the shelter home superintendent and inhumane treatment meted out to her and other inmates during their stay.

Meanwhile, a team of social welfare department (SWD) officials on Friday recorded the statement of the woman, who hails from Uttar Pradesh and was released from the shelter home six months ago, to cross-check her claims in the light of the departmental inquiry.

SWD director Raj Kumar had conducted an inquiry into the shelter home affairs and dismissed the allegations of the former inmate in his report submitted to the state government.