Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav lashed out at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over the rape of 34 girls in a shelter home in Muzzaffarpur.
Yadav wrote an open letter addressed to Kumar, who is also the president of the ruling Janata Dal (United), blaming him and his government for the incident. He also accused the government of trying to cover the matter up.
In his letter, Yadav, the former deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, wrote that his letter is non-political. He called the incident the “most horrifying Institutional mass rape case”.
“Before a politician, I am the brother of seven sisters, the son of a mother and uncle to many nieces,” wrote Yadav underlining his concern for the girls who were allegedly raped inside the shelter home run by the Bihar government.
“The government slept while they were being raped every night,” wrote the younger son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, stating that the plight of the orphan girls were ignored because they are “nobody’s vote-bank”.
“They must have expected that they will find safety, security, honour and sympathy and motherly care in government-run shelter homes. But what did they get? They were violated by those sheltered, supported and nurtured by the government,” Yadav wrote scathingly accusing the JD(U)-BJP alliance government in the state over the incident.
Commenting on the viral photos of the main accused Brijesh Thakur in which he seen laughing even as he is led away by the police, Yadav said, “Brijesh Thakur is laughing shamelessly even after his arrest because he knows that those who he served will save him to save themselves.”
Yadav said that the opposition parties will continue raising the issue.
“The opposition in Bihar is alive and it will, with full strength, stand beside these helpless daughters and will remain by their side till they get justice,” asserted Yadav.
Yadav accused Kumar and the police force of doing nothing in solving the case.
“You should have immediately order a CBI probe. But you and your DGP kept saying that nothing has happened and ‘we are capable of solving the case’. Bihar knows that you and your police is expert in erasing evidences,” alleged Yadav.
“Such an incident should never happen in Bihar ever again else people will be afraid of giving birth to daughters in Bihar,” said Yadav.
Accusing Kumar of maintaining a “criminal silence”, Yadav said, “Your role as the Chief Minister is doubtful. You must open your mouth for the daughters of Bihar. Assure them of safety and dignity. You cannot play mute. If you cannot handle the state, resign. If there is humanity left in you, speak.”
Yadav will be staging a dharna at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Saturday to protest the rape of the minor girls.
“Indirectly the Governor has questioned Chief Minister’s criminal silence…I will awake Nitish Kumar’s inner voice and expose his fake morality,” Tejashwi said on Thursday.
Kumar had on Friday said that no one will be spared in the rape of 34 minor girls at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur district.
“I am ashamed of what happened in Muzaffarpur. I was pained by it,” he said while speaking at a gathering here, adding, “I can assure you that no one will be spared.”
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) began probing the case on Sunday.
The Muzaffarpur horror came to light when the Bihar Social Welfare Department filed an FIR based on a social audit of the shelter home conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.