Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav on Saturday asked Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to resign on moral grounds, reported the Hindustan Times. Referring to the rape of 34 minors at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur, he said Kumar “isn’t fighting for justice for our daughters, but shielding those who committed crime”.
Yadav gave the chief minister a week’s time to reveal the whereabouts of a girl who went missing after being shifted from the shelter home. “Nitishji knows everything,” said Yadav, according to ANI. “I give him a week’s time to reveal the whereabouts of the girl who was shifted from the shelter home and who has been missing since then, after which we will stage a mass protest in Madhubani.”
Kumar on Monday said if someone related to his government was involved, they will not be spared. Two days later, Social Welfare Minister Manju Verma resigned following allegations that her husband had links with an accused in the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case.
The sexual exploitation of children in the Muzaffarpur shelter came to light after Mumbai’s Tata Institute of Social Sciences submitted an audit report of 110 shelter homes in the state in April. The audit had been ordered by the state government, which filed a first information report on May 31.
The police initially said 16 girls had been sexually assaulted. Later, the figure was revised to 34 on the basis of a medical report released by the Patna Medical College and Hospital. Ten of the 11 accused have been arrested so far. On Sunday, the Bihar government suspended six officials of a state child protection unit for negligence.
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