Minor girls at an Indore “orphanage” narrated tales of abuse and alleged horrifying ways of punishment, including branding with hot tongs, hanging them upside down and forced to inhale smoke from burning red chillies, prompting the local administration to seal the facility and the police to file an FIR against five women.

As the shocking tales, recounted by the inmates before a Child Welfare Committee (CWC), surfaced an FIR (first information report) was registered against five women associated with the facility for allegedly ill-treating children in the name of punishment, a police official said on Friday.