The Supreme Court on Thursday said that the details of the investigation into the rape of several girls in a Muzaffarpur shelter home were “horrible” and “scary”. “What is going on? This is horrible,” Justice Madan Lokur said while perusing the status report submitted by the Central Bureau of Investigation, PTI reported.
On Thursday, the court also issued a notice to shelter home owner Brajesh Thakur, the main accused who is in prison. The court asked Thakur why he should not be shifted out of Bihar. “What is the Bihar government doing?” the bench wondered, ANI reported. “Brajesh Thakur is a very influential man.”
The bench, also comprising Justice S Abdul Nazeer and Justice Deepak Gupta, ordered that the CBI team leading the investigation should not be changed, and posted the matter for further hearing on October 30.
The top court also asked the Bihar government and the CBI to explain the delay in locating former minister Manju Verma’s husband Chandrashekhar Verma. Verma had to resign as social welfare minister in August after allegations of her husband’s links to Thakur.
The alleged sexual exploitation of children in the shelter came to light after Mumbai’s Tata Institute of Social Sciences submitted an audit report of 110 shelter homes in Bihar in April. The audit had been ordered by the state government, which filed a first information report against 11 people, including Thakur, on May 31. A medical report confirmed the sexual assault of 34 inmates.
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