The charges also included offence of cruelty to children under their authority, punishable under the Juvenile Justice Act.
A Delhi Court on Monday convicted 19 accused in the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case, including key accused Brajesh Thakur, who was the owner of the non-governmental organisation (NGO) 'Sewa Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti' which ran the home in Bihar. The court, however, acquitted one. The quantum of sentence will be proniunced on January 8.
Additional Sessions Judge Saurabh Kulshreshtha convicted Thakur, who is also an MLA representing the Bihar People's Party (BPP), for aggravated sexual assault and gang rape, under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. Earlier, the court had deferred the order by a month till January 14 as Judge Saurabh Kulshrestha, was on leave.
The other accused included eight females and one 12 males including staff of the Muzaffarpur shelter home as well as officials in the Department of Social Welfare, Government of Bihar. The court, however, acquitted one, and convicted 19. All of them were charged with criminal conspiracy, neglect of duty and failure to report assault on the girls.
The charges also included offence of cruelty to child under their authority, punishable under the Juvenile Justice Act.
Earlier, Brajesh Thakur had filed a plea with the Delhi court claiming that the testimonies of the witnesses in the case were 'unrealiable'. However, the Additional Sessions Judge had rejected the plea noting that the case of sexual assault is different from the case of alleged murder of some of the girls in the home. In that regard, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that no children were murdered in the Muzaffarpur shelter home, adding and the skeletons found at the shelter home were not of minor inmates.
Notably, allegations of sexual and physical assault of several minor girls at the NGO-run shelter home in Muzaffarpur had come to light April 2018 following a report by Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) that was submitted to the Bihar’s social welfare department.
On May 2018, the Bihar government had shifted the minor girls to different protection homes and an FIR was lodged against 11 accused in the case. Later, the Supreme Court took cognizance of the matter in August and handed over the investigation to the CBI in November.
The Supreme Court had also tasked the CBI with probing similar allegations at 16 other shelter homes in Bihar, flagged by TISS in its report.
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 "Key accused Brajesh Thakur was convicted for aggravated sexual assault and gang rape of minors under the POCSO Act")
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