The Supreme Court on Monday expressed concern over the rising incidents of assaults and sexual violence against minor girls in the country.
It also took cognizance of the recent incidents where 34 minor girls in Bihar’s Supaul were thrashed for allegedly resisting sexual advances and the Muzzafarpur shelter home case.
“All these newspaper reports are not good. Skeleton of girls found… 34 girls beaten up because they wanted to protect themselves from molestation. How could you treat children like this? These kinds of problems are arising day in and day out,” the court observed.
On Saturday, at least 34 girls, all of them students of Kasturba Awasiya Balika Vidyalay in Triveniganj, were thrashed by a group of youths who forcibly entered with the alleged intention of molesting the girls.
According to reports, some girls caught a group of boys who had sneaked into the school on the day of the incident. They asked the men to leave. The girls had to beat the guys up in self defence when they began to misbehave with them.
Later, as things escalated, the girls were reportedly beaten up by over two dozen men. Many girls were left bleeding and they were soon rushed to the hospital.
In another shocking incident, more than 35 inmates of the Muzzafarpur shelter home in Bihar were allegedly sexually assaulted and it was reported that one of the girls was killed and later buried to cover up the murder.
Some of the victims in the government-funded shelter home run by Brajesh Thakur’s NGO have alleged that some of their fellow inmates were killed and buried after rape.
The incident came to light after a report from Tata Institute of Social Sciences alleged sexual abuse of about 34 girls at the shelter home following which an FIR was subsequently registered by the Bihar social welfare department and 10 people were arrested.