The assistant director of the State Social Welfare department, Divesh Kumar Sharma, was suspended on Saturday for the delay in taking action following the social audit report by Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) that had exposed sexual exploitation of 34 girls at a Muzaffarpur shelter home .
Following the TISS report, Mr. Sharma had first lodged an FIR on May 31 at the women's police station in Muzaffarpur.
In the FIR, Mr. Sharma had mentioned page 52 of the 100-page TISS report which under “Grave Concerns”, had said that girls at the Muzaffarpur shelter home were “physically and sexually abused”.
In a single-page FIR there was no named accused.
It was while working on the FIR the district police shifted all 44 girls from there and on their statement arrested the main accused Brajesh Thakur, who was managing the NGO Sewa Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti, that was running the affairs of the government-funded shelter home in a building adjacent to his residence.
Later, nine other staff and officials, including seven women, were arrested in the case. However, one person, Dilip Kumar Verma, is still absconding. Police have also filed a charge sheet against them in the court.
When the Opposition parties demanded a High Court-monitored CBI inquiry into the case, the State government on July 26 recommended it and on July 28 the CBI started its investigation.
Recently, the CBI has seized several papers from the State social welfare department and quizzed officials about the fund given to the NGO managed by Thakur.
Thakur’s NGOs have now been blacklisted by the department.
Two months after the FIR being lodged in the case, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said “the Muzaffarpur incident is a heinous act and it has shamed us”. He also said he was ready for the High Court-monitored CBI probe and that “the guilty will not be spared”.
On Saturday, Rashtriya Janata Dal-led Opposition parties had organized a protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi to condemn the incident and demanded “Supreme Court monitored CBI probe”.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Left Party leaders Sitaram Yechuri and D. Raja and host of other opposition leaders were present at the protest.
