Muzaffarpur shelter home rapes: “If state govt recommends this, we will consider a CBI inquiry,” Rajnath Singh said. (Express file photo/Tashi Tobgyal)
In a response to Congress MP Ranjeet Ranjan’s demand in Lok Sabha that a CBI inquiry should be ordered into the alleged sexual exploitation case at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar, Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday said the government will allow it if the state government recommends that. “If state govt recommends this, we will consider a CBI inquiry,” Singh said.
The Congress MP also demanded proper security for the girls at the shelter home. “Till the time the inquiry is not completed, it is to be seen that the girls are given proper security,” Ranjan said during the Monsoon Session of Parliament.
This comes a day after girls of a government-funded shelter home in Muzaffarpur alleged that one of their fellow inmates was beaten to death and buried at the premises of the facility, and several were raped.
Following the allegations, the Muzaffarpur Police Monday dug up a spot inside the closed short stay home on a court order after two of its inmates said in their statements before a judge that a girl had been beaten to death and buried there two years ago. Police, however, did not find any body. A police team dug up the spot in the presence of an executive magistrate deputed by the district administration on directions of a POCSO court in the district. SSP Harpreet Kaur said: “We have complied with the court order but did not find anything. Soil samples have been collected for forensic tests.”
More than 40 girls are lodged at the shelter home and medical reports suggest that more than half of them may have had sexual intercourse at some point of time, she said.
The short stay home, which was run by an NGO, was shut in May after a case of sexual exploitation was lodged against the owners of the home following a social audit report by Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). All 47 inmates staying there were shifted to shelter homes in Patna, Madhubani and Mokama.
TISS was engaged by Bihar government’s social welfare department to conduct a social audit of all 110 short stay homes for women and girls. The institute had found large-scale complaints of sexual exploitation at the Muzaffarpur home.
“After 10 people were arrested and some of them booked under POCSO Act, several girls recorded their statements under Section 164 of CrPC. As two girls alleged murder and burial of a girl at the Muzaffarpur home, the local court took note and asked the police to dig up the spot to find evidence,” said a police officer, adding that either the girls’ statements were based on hearsay or they had not identified the correct spot.
On the other hand, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav have alleged that the owner of the shelter home is close to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. “Owner of the NGO that runs the shelter home is close to CM Nitish Kumar, had even campaigned for him in elections,” said Yadav.