Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday ordered the director general of police to hand over the inquiry into the alleged rapes of 29 girls in a Muzaffarpur shelter home to the Central Bureau of Investigation, ANI reported. State Director General of Police KS Dwivedi had said on Wednesday that there was no need to hand the case over to the central agency.
The police are still awaiting medical reports of 13 of the 44 inmates at the home. The police also said on Wednesday that an inmate of the state-run shelter had alleged that the body of a girl was buried on the premises.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the wife of an accused official claimed that the husband of state social welfare department minister Kumari Manju Verma frequently visited the shelter home and “spent long hours” in the girls’ room, the Hindustan Times reported.
“My husband has been framed,” Shiva Kumari Singh, wife of Child Protection Officer Ravi Kumar Raushan, said. “It was the minister’s husband who would often visit the shelter with department officials. He would make them sit on the ground floor and spend hours with the girls upstairs.” Shiva Kumari Singh had requested Nitish Kumar to order a CBI inquiry.
However, the minister rejected the allegations against her husband Chandeshwar Verma, and accused the Opposition of indulging in “petty politics”. “Those people who are neck-deep in corruption and unfair practices are trying to malign others,” she said.
Chandeshwar Verma claimed he had visited the home only once in the last two years, after his wife became minister of the welfare department. However, the children had told the police officers that a politician and a man with a moustache used to visit the shelter home and sexually assault them, the Hindustan Times reported.
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