Thirtyfive girls believed to have been murdered in the Muzaffarpur shelter home sexual abuse case had been found to be alive, the CBI told the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Allegations about the ‘murders’ had first surfaced last year in the statements of girls rescued from the shelter home run by the kingpin, Brajesh Thakur. The CBI had also found that the names of these had mysteriously disappeared from the balikagarh (girls’ home). In March 2019, the agency told the court that 35 girls with identical or similar names had indeed lived in the shelter home at one point of time or the other.
Suspicions were raised that Thakur and his accomplices had killed the girls. In the meantime, one of the accused, Guddu Patel, had led them to a “particular spot in a burial ground” where a bundle of human bones were unearthed. These developments coupled with the slow pace had led to accusations that the CBI was going soft and slow in the case.
On Wednesday, Attorney-General K.K. Venugopal, for the CBI, said the agency had tracked each and every one of the 35 missing girls. Mr. Venugopal said the bones did not belong to a child. One was that of a man and the other of a woman.
In its latest status report, the CBI told the Supreme Court that investigation into 17 cases, including the Muzaffarpur one, had been completed and reports filed for taking action against the erring government servants including district Magistrates.
The probe agency said no incriminating evidence proving commission of any criminal offence could be gathered in four preliminary enquiries and as such no FIR had been registered.
“Investigation/Enquiry of all 17 shelter home cases has been completed. The final report in 13 regular cases has been forwarded in the competent court. Enquiry of all four preliminary enquiries has been completed and no evidence proving commission of criminal offence could be gathered and hence no FIR was registered on this count,” the CBI said in the status report.
“The CBI reports/self-contained note have been forwarded to the Bihar Chief Secretary for taking action against erring government servants in all cases. Investigation of all the 17 shelter home cases including Muzaffarpur shelter home case has been completed and final report has been filed in the competent court. Self contained note in the form of CBI report has been sent to the Chief Secretary for corrective action,” it said.
The CBI also said the Bihar government had been requested to take departmental action and cancellation of registration and blacklisting of concerned NGOs by providing them the result of the investigation in the form of report.
“Trial of one case in case of Balika Grih Muzaffarpur has been concluded and judgment is scheduled to be pronounced on January 14,” it said.
Several girls were sexually assaulted at an NGO-run shelter home in Muzaffarpur. The horror came to light following a field report by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).
