A Delhi court on Saturday framed charges against main accused Brajesh Thakur and 20 others in the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case, PTI reported. The charges included were rape, sexual assault, criminal conspiracy, drugging of minors and criminal intimidation.
Charges under relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act were also framed. The employees of the shelter home, Thakur, and Bihar department of social welfare officials have been charged with criminal conspiracy, neglect of duty and failure to report assault on the girls.
Additional Sessions Judge Saurabh Kulshreshtha said there was prima facie enough evidence against the 21 accused chargesheeted in the case. The judge said the trial would begin on April 3 with recording of prosecution evidence.
In the court on Saturday, all the accused pleaded innocence and claimed trail. Five of the accused had earlier claimed that there is not enough evidence to prosecute them.
The Supreme Court, on February 7, had transferred the trial to a Protection of Children from Sexual Offences court in Delhi’s Saket and ordered it to complete the trial within six months. The court had also criticised the Bihar government’s management of shelter homes.
On February 12, the top court held M Nageswara Rao, former interim director of the CBI, and another senior CBI official guilty of contempt for the transfer of an agency officer investigating the case.
The alleged sexual exploitation of children at the shelter came to light in April 2018 after Mumbai’s Tata Institute of Social Sciences submitted an audit report of 110 shelter homes in Bihar. The audit had been ordered by the state government, which filed a first information report against 11 people on May 31.
At least 34 inmates were allegedly drugged and raped, according to law enforcement agencies. The Central Bureau of Investigation – in it chargesheet filed in December – alleged that Brajesh Thakur had coerced girls to dance to vulgar songs and have sexual intercourse with guests. Thakur is currently lodged in a high-security prison in Punjab.
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