Delhi’s Saket Court has set January 20 for delivering its judgement on the alleged sexual and physical assault of girls at Bihar’s Muzaffarpur shelter home.
The court of Special POCSO Judge Saurabh Kulshreshta was set to pronounce judgment in the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case today. The court concluded the final arguments on September 30 and had reserved the order.
Meanwhile, in a shocking revelation, the CBI on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that there was no evidence of murder of children in the Muzaffarpur shelter home.
The apex court was told by the investigating agency that two skeletons were recovered but later in the forensic investigation, it was found to be that of a woman and a man.
A bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde accepted the status report of the CBI and allowed two officers to be relieved from the investigation team.
Attorney General KK Venugopal, appearing for the probe agency, said, investigation was done on rape and sexual assault allegation of children and chargesheets have been filed before courts concerned.
Venugopal said children, who were alleged to be murdered, were later traced and found to be alive.
He said that CBI has investigated cases of 17 shelter homes in Bihar and chargesheet has been filed in 13 of them while in four cases the preliminary inquiry was conducted and later closed as no evidence was found.
The Delhi court had on March 20, 2018, framed charges against 20 accused, including main accused Brajesh Thakur, for offences of criminal conspiracy to commit rape and penetrative sexual assault against minors.
The accused — eight women and 12 men — included employees of the shelter home and officials of Social Welfare Department of Bihar.
All the accused were produced before the link judge who directed them to furnish a surety of Rs 50,000 each.
Thakur, former Bihar People’s Party MLA, was charged under provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, including Section 6 (aggravated sexual assault).
The incident came to light after the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) submitted a report to the Bihar government in May 2018. The report highlighted the alleged sexual abuse of minor girls in the shelter home.
Earlier, in a sensational revelation, the CBI had told the Supreme Court that 11 girls were allegedly murdered by key accused Brajesh Thakur and his accomplices and “bundle of bones” recovered from a burial ground.
At the shelter home in Muzaffarpur, at least 44 girls – aged seven to fourteen – were allegedly drugged, raped, forced to sleep naked and scalded with boiling water. Some of the girls were also forced to undergo an abortion.