A second police case was filed against the shelter home for women based at Gaighat in Bihar’s capital Patna on the complaint of a former inmate on Thursday, a day after another former inmate lodged an FIR (first information report) alleging maltreatment at the facility, a lawyer and activist associated with the case said.

“The social welfare department (SWD) has finally acknowledged the allegations made by the woman and she got her complaint registered at the police station today,” said advocate Minu Kumar, legal adviser for Mahila Vikas Manch who accompanied the inmate to the department on Thursday.

Kishori Sahchari, inspector at the woman police station where the complaint was lodged, said, “She had come here earlier also to lodge a complaint, but didn’t submit one. She submitted a written complaint today.”

“In her complaint, she has alleged that the superintendent of Gaighat shelter home behaved rudely with inmates, who were also sexually exploited. She has also said that the food served to inmates was of poor quality,” Sahchari said.

Earlier, a video clip, purportedly of the woman who filed the police case today, had gone viral. In the video, she was heard making several allegations, including of sexual abuse.

Later, the Patna High Court took suo motu cognisance of the matter.

In the meantime, the social welfare department, which exercises jurisdiction on shelter homes, dismissed the charges as “baseless”, saying its own probe had found the girl “fickle minded and quarrelsome”.

Social welfare department director Rajkumar refused to comment, saying the matter is sub-judice.