‘Duncan Grant still befriends street kids’

Colaba resident Meher Pestonjee, who along with advocate and child rights activist Mahrukh Adenwala were the first to speak to the abused children from Anchorage shelter home around 10 years ago, said when the Bombay high court acquitted Duncan Grant and Allan Waters, she was very upset.   

“It was a very disturbing judgment as far as I was concerned. I live in Colaba and it was alarming to see Grant in the area befriending the same kind of children who had accused him of sexual abuse. I saw him even a few days ago with street children,” she said.   

While acquitting the accused, the high court had said that the testimony of the two boys which was the basis for the sessions court’s judgment cannot be considered reliable as their testimonies recorded by the police after the FIR was not consistent with what they had recorded with Pestonjee and Adenwala before the FIR was lodged.

Pestonjee, a writer, knew Duncan before he started the shelter. “There were a couple of questions in my mind when I heard about the shelter. There are a number of night shelters for children but social workers do not stay there. Foreigners, especially those from Western countries, are used to a certain level of hygiene. Also, the people who ran the shelter for him had no track record of social work. If you set up an NGO, you need people with some qualification in social work,” said Pestonjee. “I remember asking Duncan why he stayed at the shelter. I do not think he answered that question.” 

It was Carmel Berkson, an American artist staying at the Salvation Army hostel in Colaba, who first told Pestonjee that children were possibly being abused at the shelter.   

“Carmel had been staying in the area for 30 years and knew the children. The children told her about the abuse. Carmel was a friend and she told me about the boys,” said Pestonjee. 
Pestonjee and Adenwala spoke to several children and the testimonials of five were recorded in the FIR. During the trial in the sessions court only two boys stuck to their statements.