A special Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences (POSCO) court has directed the CBI to conduct an inquiry against JD(U) Chief and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and two senior bureaucrats in connection with the Muzaffarpur shelter home sex scandal.
The court passed the order on Friday on an application filed by an accused, Ashwani, a self-styled medical practitioner who allegedly used to inject the home’s inmates with sedatives before they were subject to sexual abuse.
Ashwani had alleged in his petition that the CBI was “suppressing facts” in course of the investigation which would come to light if the roles of “former DM, Muzaffarpur, Dharmendra Singh, senior IAS officer Atul Kumar Singh, former divisional commissioner of Muzaffarpur and currently principal secretary, the Social Welfare Department, and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar” were probed.
POCSO judge Manoj Kumar directed the CBI to conduct an inquiry against the aforementioned people.
The trial in the high-profile case was transferred vide order dated February 7 to the Special POCSO court at Saket in Delhi where hearing is likely to commence from next week, CBI sources said.
Muzaffarpur Shelter Home Rape case refers to a shelter home that ran under a non-governmental organization called “Sewa Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti” at Muzaffarpur where cases of sexual abuse, rape and torture were reported. In a medical examination, sexual abuse of 34 out of 42 inmates living at the shelter was confirmed.
A first information report was lodged against 12 people on May 31, 2018. Brajesh Thakur was the chief of the state-funded NGO, ran several other NGOs. Because of the political connections of Brajesh Thakur and the involvement of government officials and the apparent delay in investigation and CBI interference, the case drew criticism of Nitish Kumar’s government by opposition political parties and the Supreme Court of India.
