Muzaffarpur shelter home case: SC seeks states’ status report on rescued girls

A bench, led by Chief Justice of India Uday Umesh Lalit, directed the child welfare departments and the child protection societies of the respective states to file status reports on the steps taken so far to ascertain the welfare of the 32 girls who were reunited with their families in 2019.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought status reports from the concerned authorities in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Assam, Uttarakhand and Punjab regarding the well-being of girls who were rescued from a shelter home at Bihar’s Muzaffarpur, where allegations of rampant sexual assault surfaced in 2018.

The apex court had in February 2019 transferred the criminal case from Bihar to Delhi while directing the Central Bureau of Investigation to speed up the investigation. (Sonu Mehta/HT PHOTO)

A bench, led by Chief Justice of India Uday Umesh Lalit, directed the child welfare departments and the child protection societies of the respective states to file status reports on the steps taken so far to ascertain the welfare of the 32 girls who were reunited with their families in 2019.

“We direct respective child welfare committees to send appropriate status reports detailing steps taken and present status of girls, including whether such girls are being imparted education or any vocational training and how best their well-being has been taken care of. Some compensation was extended to each one and the state would do well to give status with regard to expenditure of such amount,” ordered the bench, which also included justice Bela M Trivedi.

The bench gave the states six weeks to carry out the exercise and submit reports in the court. The order came following the submission by the counsel for the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), which had conducted the social audit of the NGO-run shelter home in Muzaffarpur, bringing to light the instances of sexual abuses.

TISS told the court that while 12 out of the 44 rescued girls could not be reunited with their families since they were mentally or physically infirm, the status of those restored with families are not known in absence of any status report from the states.

Accepting this suggestion, the bench called upon the status reports from the states regarding the girls.

The apex court had in February 2019 transferred the criminal case from Bihar to Delhi while directing the Central Bureau of Investigation to speed up the investigation.

In January 2020, a Delhi court sentenced the main accused, Brajesh Thakur, to imprisonment till his last breath, saying he was the “kingpin” of a “meticulously planned” conspiracy and “displayed extreme perversity”. Thakur challenged his conviction before the Delhi high court, where his appeal is pending.