Taking a serious note of repeated rape of 34 minor girls in a shelter home in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district, Governor Satyapal Malik on Wednesday expressed his anguish and worry in a letter addressed to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
In the letter, Malik described the rape of minor girls in Muzaffarpur as “heart-rending” and suggested measures for preventing recurrence of such incidents in the future.
Malik has also written to Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Chief Justice of Patna High Court Rajendra Menon in connection with sexual abuse of minor girls in the shelter home.
An official in the Governor House said Malik has called for trial of cases relating to harassment of girls, boys and women living in such state-funded homes by fast-track courts.
The Governor has suggested immediate and intensive probe into reports of mismanagement of other such short-stay homes that have appeared in the media, of late, and a mechanism for their continued monitoring.
He has stressed the need for developing an institutional mechanism to ensure that social audit of these shelter homes by competent institutions take place on a regular basis, the official said.
Malik has also called for implementation of recommendations of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, in this regard.
The Muzaffarpur shelter home case came to light earlier this year when the Bihar Social Welfare Department filed an FIR based on a social audit of the shelter home conducted by TISS.
The CBI on Sunday took over the shelter home rape case following a recommendation by Nitish Kumar, who has described it as “a heinous crime”.