New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has told the Supreme Court that it has completed its probe in all 17 cases related to sexual assault of minor children in Bihar shelter homes, ThePrint has learnt.
The cases came to light in May 2018 after it was found that inmates of a home run by NGO Sewa Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti in Muzaffarpur were sexually abused and physically assaulted.
As investigations started into the Mazaffarpur matter, more such cases emerged in the state, and a total of 17 cases were registered.
A charge sheet was filed in the Muzaffarpur case last year. A Saket court in Delhi will deliver the verdict on 14 January.
The probe agency has since filed chargesheets and recommended to the Bihar government action against erring officials, including district magistrates, in 12 more cases out of the total 17, it said in an affidavit filed before the court Monday.
In the affidavit, accessed by ThePrint, the agency said it found no evidence of “proving the commission of criminal offence” in the other four preliminary enquiries.
Also read: How Bihar govt dragged feet on Muzaffarpur sexual abuse case, defied SC
What CBI told the court
The central probe agency has in its affidavit to the Supreme Court detailed the action it has taken in the 12 cases. These cases are against shelter homes in Bhagalpur, Gaya, Motihari (2), Munger (2), Patna (2), Kaimur, Madhepura, Muzaffarpur (second case) and Araria.
The CBI filed a charge sheet against eight persons of Bhagalpur’s Children Home for Boys on 25 December. It recommended departmental action against two district magistrates (DMs) and government officials to the Bihar government in the case. Blacklisting of certain members of the child welfare committee (CWC) was also suggested.
A charge sheet was also filed against three in the case of Children Home for Boys, Gaya on 27 December. Departmental action was suggested against two erring DMs, three government officials. Further, blacklisting of 13 private persons or parties and members of the CWC was recommended to state government.
In its report, the agency has sought department action against erring DMs, with the maximum in the case against Short Stay Home in Motihari, where the agency suggested departmental action against five DMs and blacklisting one member from the NGO Sakhi.
Preliminary enquiries from Madhubani, Patna, Kaimur and a second shelter home in Gaya, were closed as the agency found “no evidence of the commission of criminal offence”, and hence “no regular case was registered”.
The affidavit came after the Supreme Court directed the CBI on 28 November 2018 to conduct a probe into allegations of physical and sexual abuse of inmates in 16 other shelter homes in Bihar which were flagged in a report by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).
In June last year, a vacation bench of the top court had granted three months to the agency to complete its probe, including into the murder aspect, in the Muzaffarpur shelter home case.
The vacation bench comprising Justice Indu Malhotra and Justice M.R. Shah directed the CBI to also investigate allegations of unnatural sexual assault under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code and probe video recordings of the assault on girls at the Muzaffarpur shelter home.
The Muzaffarpur case
In the Muzaffarpur shelter home case, former Bihar People’s Party MLA Brajesh Thakur, who ran the shelter home, is the alleged kingpin. .
The other accused — eight women and 12 men — include employees of Thakur’s shelter home and officials in the Bihar department of social welfare.
After the probe in the case was transferred to CBI, the agency charge-sheeted 21 people, including Thakur.
The CBI told the Saket court in September that 11 girls were allegedly murdered by Thakur and his accomplices and a “bundle of bones” was recovered from a burial ground in Muzaffarpur.
The court had framed charges against the accused, including Thakur, on 20 March last year for offences of criminal conspiracy to commit rape and penetrative sexual assault against minors. It held trial for the offences of rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, drugging of minors, criminal intimidation, among other charges. However, murder charges were not included.
Also read: Supreme Court allows 8 girls from Muzaffarpur shelter home to reunite with families