Muzaffarpur shelter home case: Pocso court sends two Brajesh aides to 5-day CBI custody

The court, hearing cases filed under the Pocso Act, however, declined the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) request for seven-day custody of Madhu Kumari and Ashwani Kumar — who allegedly posed as a doctor — and posted the matter to November 26 for further hearing.

A special Pocso (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) court at Muzaffarpur on Wednesday remanded two close aides of Brajesh Thakur, the prime accused in the shelter home case in which the girl inmates of the facility were sexually abused, in five-day CBI custody.

Madhu Kumari going to surrender in CBI court at Muzaffarpur Tuesday. Santosh/HT

The court, hearing cases filed under the Pocso Act, however, declined the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) request for seven-day custody of Madhu Kumari and Ashwani Kumar — who allegedly posed as a doctor — and posted the matter to November 26 for further hearing.

Madhu Kumari and Ashwani Kumar were on Wednesday produced before the court of special Pocso judge RP Tiwari after their medical examination at Muzaffarpur sadar hospital.

Madhu, who had gone underground after the horrific sex scandal came to light, surrendered before a special CBI court at Muzaffarpur on Tuesday.

Ashwini, who posed as a doctor, was arrested from Fatehpur village in Kurhni police station area of the district on Tuesday night. Also known as Bada Bhusan, Ashwini did not have any medical degree, a CBI officer said, adding that he learnt how to administer injections while sitting in the clinic of his father, a doctor, at Kurhani, about 30 km from Muzaffarpur town.

He used to visit the shelter home run by Thakur on call and allegedly used to administer injections laced with sedatives to the shelter home inmates before they were subjected to sexual abuse, the officer said.

The officer said Madhu, who handled many businesses of Thakur, allegedly decided which girl should be sent outside the short stay home. “There are indications that girls were also sent outside Muzaffarpur,” he said, adding that the statements of the girls also corroborated the allegation that they were forced to go the residences of officials and political leaders.

Thirtyfour girls, who had recorded their statements before a judicial magistrate on the direction of a POCSO court, in their statement claimed that “a doctor” used to visit the shelter home often and injected them sedatives. The medical examination of the girls also showed they had burn and cut marks all over their bodies. After the scandal came to light, the Muzaffarpur police recovered 63 different medicines and wrappers of used drugs from the shelter home premises.

Eighteen people, including Thakur, have so far been arrested in connection with the high-profile scandal, which came to light following a social audit of the shelter homes in Bihar conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) earlier this year. Thakur is currently lodged at a jail in Punjab’s Patiala following a Supreme Court order.

Altogether 107 people worked with Thakur’s NGO ‘Sewa Sankalp Aur Vikas Samiti’ that ran the shelter home. Talking to reporters, Madhu sought to know why she had been arrested while 99 other NGO employees were moving scot free. Claiming that she knew nothing about the goings on at the shelter home, Madhu revealed that she used to write PhD thesis for wives of government officers.