No evidence of murder of children in Muzaffarpur shelter home case: CBI tells SC

Brajesh Thakur, a journalist-turned-social activist heading the NGO who ran the shelter home, and other accused were arrested. The matter was handed over to the CBI in July last year. (File Photo: IANS)


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 forensic investigation it was found to be that of a woman and a man.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde accepted the status report of the CBI and allowed two officers to be relieved from the investigation team.

Attorney General K K Venugopal, appearing for the probe agency, said, investigation was done on rape and sexual assault allegation of children and charge sheets 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 charge sheet 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 incident was unfolded 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.

An FIR was registered against Brajesh Thakur in connection with 15 women and children missing from his Muzaffarpur shelter homes.

A total of 44 girls were victims in the shelter home abuse case, which is currently being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The trial of the 21 accused, chargesheeted by the CBI for sexual abuse of the inmates, is currently on in a Delhi court.

Bihar Social Welfare Department filed an FIR based on a TISS social audit. Brajesh Thakur, a journalist-turned-social activist heading the NGO who ran the shelter home, and other accused were arrested. The matter was handed over to the CBI in July last year.

Thakur has since been shifted to the high-security Patiala jail following a Supreme Court order, while the other accused, including his close aides and some government officials, are lodged in jails in Patna and Muzaffarpur. The trial of the case was later shifted to Delhi.