Days after the CBI took over the case of sexual abuse of 34 minor girls at a State-run Muzaffarpur shelter home, the Bihar government has suspended six officials, including the assistant director of Muzaffarpur child protection unit, Divesh Kumar Sharma, for “negligence and dereliction of duty.” Following the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) report which had exposed “sexual and physical exploitation of girls,” Mr. Sharma had filed the FIR on May 31.
The officials put under suspension were posted as assistant directors of child protection units at Muzaffarpur, Munger, Araria, Madhubani, Bhagalpur and Bhojpur districts. Notification of their suspension was issued late on Saturday night by the State Social Welfare department director, Raj Kumar. The TISS report had red-flagged about the pathetic situation at shelter homes in these districts. All the officials have been put under suspension with immediate effect.
“They have been charged with failure to take adequate legal action with regard to assault, indecent behaviour and other undesirable activities at shelter homes within their respective areas of jurisdiction as pointed out in the TISS social audit report,” said a Social Welfare Department official.
FIR lodged
Earlier, after the incident surfaced in a social audit report of TISS, an FIR was lodged by Mr. Sharma on May 31. Mr. Sharma, too, was suspended along with five others. In the FIR, Mr. Sharma had mentioned about page 52 of the 100-page TISS report which under the caption of “Grave Concerns” had said girls at the Muzaffarpur shelter home were “physically and sexually abused.” In a single page FIR none was named accused.
Following the FIR, the district police shifted all 44 girls and on their statement arrested the main accused Brajesh Thakur, who was managing the NGO Sewa Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti which was running the affairs of the government-funded shelter home in a building adjacent to his residence. Later nine other staff members and officials, including seven women, were arrested in the case. However, one Dilip Kumar Verma is still absconding. Police have filed a chargesheet against them in the court.
Papers seized
Meanwhile, the CBI has seized several papers from the Social Welfare Department and quizzed officials about the funds given to the NGOs managed by Mr. Thakur. Mr. Thakur’s NGOs have now been blacklisted by the department. Registrations of his newspapers and arms licence too have been cancelled.