New Delhi: Minor girls living in the Muzaffarpur shelter home under investigation were forced to have sex with the owner and others, and dance on ‘vulgar’ songs, the Central Bureau of Investigation has said.
According to NDTV, the CBI has filed a 73-page chargesheet revealing details of how Brajesh Thakur, who operated the home, forced the the girls to wear revealing clothes, dance on “Bhojpuri songs”, drugged and raped by “guests”. Thakur and 20 others, including staff members at the home, have been charged under the Protection of Children From Sexual Offences Act.
“Those refusing to entertain the guests were offered only roti and salt at night, while those who danced were given good food,” the chargesheet says, according to Hindustan Times. Of the 42 girls at the home, medical tests revealed that as many as 34 had been sexually assaulted.
Thakur is reportedly close to several Bihar politicians, particularly from the Janata Dal (United). The Supreme Court called him a “very influential man” while hearing the Muzaffarpur home case.
K.D. Mishra, an advocate and child rights activist, has argued that the CBI has left out the names of government officials who knew about the abuse and did not intervene. Section 19 of the (POCSO) Act clearly stipulates that any person having the knowledge of an offence shall provide information to the police. Why the officers did not report the matter even as they were aware of it since the beginning of 2018?” Hindustan Times quotes him as saying.
Years of sexual abuse and exploitation at the shelter home became public after a social audit carried out by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.