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Bihar shelter home case verdict likely today
More than 42 minors were allegedly sexually assaulted over a period of time in the shelter home which was run by Thakur’s state-funded NGO.
The Saket district court in Delhi will deliver its judgment on Tuesday in the case of alleged sexual and physical assault of several girls, most of them minors, at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur.
On December 12, the court had deferred the judgment for a second time in the case till January 14 as Judge Saurabh Kulshrestha, who had conducted the trial, was on leave.
Earlier in November, the court had deferred by a month till December 12 as the as the accused could not be brought to court premises from jail due to lawyers’ strike in all six district courts in Delhi.
The court had, on March 20, 2018, framed charges against the 21 accused --nine women and 13 men --for offences of criminal conspiracy to commit rape and penetrative sexual assault against minors.
The accused include employees of an NGO (Sewa Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti) run by prime accused Brajesh Thakur, who is currently lodged in Tihar central jail, and officials of Bihar’s department of social welfare. More than 42 minors were allegedly sexually assaulted over a period of time in the shelter home which was run by Thakur’s state-funded NGO.
Earlier, on February 7, 2019, the Supreme Court had ordered authorities to transfer the case from Bihar to a Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) court in Saket District Court complex in Delhi.
The apex court had, in June last year, granted three months to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to complete the probe in the case, including suspected murders, and had directed it to widen the scope to investigate the “outsiders” involved in the crime.It had also directed the CBI to probe the allegations of unnatural sexual assault under section 377 of the Indian Penal Code in the case. Besides, it had asked the CBI to probe the offences under the Information Technology Act regarding the video recordings of the alleged assault on girls at the shelter home.
The Saket court had reserved order on September 30 after final arguments by the CBI counsel. The CBI had told a special court that there was enough evidence against all the accused in the case. During the trial, counsel for the CBI told the court that the statements of minor girls, who were allegedly sexually assaulted, point to the fact that there was enough evidence against all the accused and they should be convicted.
However, those accused have claimed that the CBI had not conduct a “fair investigation” into the case. The matter had come to light after the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) submitted a report to the Bihar government on May 26, 2018, highlighting the alleged sexual abuse of minor girls in the shelter home for the first time.
Former Bihar social welfare minister and then JD(U) leader Manju Verma also faced flak as allegations surfaced that Thakur had links with her husband. She resigned from her post on August 8, 2018.
On May 29, 2018, the state government shifted the girls from the shelter home to other protection homes. An FIR was lodged against the 11 accused in the case on May 31, 2018. The top court on August 2, 2018 had taken cognisance of the alleged sexual assaults and transferred the probe to the CBI on November 28, 2018.
Recently, the CBI told the Supreme Court that it has completed its probe in all 17 cases related to sexual assault of minor children in Bihar shelter homes. The probe agency has since filed charge sheets and recommended to the Bihar government action against erring officials, including district magistrates, in 12 more cases out of the total 17, it said in an affidavit filed before the court.
