Muzaffarpur shelter home case: CBI to grill manager, quack for five more days

A Bihar court has sentenced Madhu alias Shaista Parween and private medical practitioner Dr Ashwini Kumar to five-day CBI custody for their involvement in the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case.

The duo is believed to be aides of Brajesh Thakur, the main accused in the rape case, and were arrested on Tuesday. Madhu is believed to be the manager of several of Thakur's organisations and is privy to all his activities. The CBI was looking for her since several months. She surrendered in Muzaffarpur on Tuesday, and claimed she was only linked to Thakur's newspaper and had no information about anything else.

A source said Madhu's arrest led the CBI sleuths to Dr Ashwini Kumar, a non-registered medical practitioner who was the visiting doctor at Thakur's shelter home. Several of the girls had complained that he used to inject them with sedatives, following which they lost consciousness. The bogus doctor was arrested from Kurhani block in Muzaffarpur, where he practiced quackery.

"Questioning Madhu and the doctor may provide us with clues and evidence that can help the case. Our information suggests that the doctor was a close confidante of Thakur, as was Madhu," the source added.

The Muzaffarpur case pertains to the sexual exploitation of several minor girls at a shelter home run by Thakur. It came to light following a social audit report by a team from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). The report compelled the government to lodge an FIR, and the case was later handed over to the CBI.