பாதிரியின் பாலின வேட்டைக்கு பலியாகும் தமிழக சிறுவர்கள்

Australian national accused of exploiting orphanage inmates in Orissa police net

DN Singh

Puri, Nov 14: Fear and grief boiled over into anger when a mentor was caught while committing a crime never expected of him. An Australian national has been arrested by the police in Puri on the charges of sexual exploitation of the little inmates of an orphanage home in the holy-city.

Allegedly, the accused Dr. Poul Ellan has been doing it, with about 40 children of the home, for last six months but it came to light on November 13 when the matter was somehow leaked to the warden of the orphanage. On a complaint from the warden, the local police have arrested Dr. Poul Ellan.

It never occurred to anybody in the MEG foundation home in Puri that a monster in the garb of a doctor was out to exploit the children sexually as and when he wanted to. However, on October 10 last when the founder of this trust Marry Ellen Gerber came back to Puri, she was informed by one of her staff that, Dr. Poul was a paedophile. Gerber was stunned but she quietly conducted the inquiry and she was shell shocked when she found the allegations to be true.

Ellen informed the local police and lodged an FIR but by then the culprit had fled from the home.

Quoting the complaint, the police said Paul had been working in the orphanage since its inception in 2002. Mary regularly visits orphanages, run by the foundation in Orissa as well as Andhra Pradesh, on inspection, they said.

However, police spread its net and Poul was apprehended from the Mary Ellen Berger (MEG) trust located in Vishakhapatnam and brought to Puri. Police has registered a case under Section 376 under IPC and sent Poul to court.

Dr Poul Ellan was a part and parcel of this home which Marry Ellan had opened here in 2000 to look after the children rendered orphan in the Super cyclone that had struck Orissa on October 29. 1999.

Paul was staying in a guest house in the premises of the orphanage, housing 85 children, including 45 girls.

A doctor by discipline, 60 year old Poul Ellan was associated with this trust which has its branches in India and abroad as well. Besides Puri, MEG has its presence in Vishakhapatnam and Pondicherry where orphans are taken care of. Poul’s act of paedophilia was not only limited to Puri but he was doing the same things in the MEG homes in Vishakhapatnam & Pondichery. In total, he had preyed on 40 inmates of the three homes for his beastly libido.

Paul and some of the inmates were sent for medical examination.