Supreme Court lifts ban on reporting of Muzaffarpur shelter home sexual abuse case

There cannot be a blanket ban on media reporting in the Muzaffarpur shelter home sexual abuse case in which several women inmates were allegedly raped and sexually abused, the Supreme Court said on Thursday.

A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta vacated the August 23 order of the Patna High Court, which had imposed a ban on media reporting of the investigations in the case.

The apex court, however, asked both the print and the electronic media not to sensationalise the incidents of sexual abuse and sexual violence.

Over 30 girls were allegedly raped at the shelter home run by Brajesh Thakur, the chief of a state-funded NGO. The alleged sexual exploitation of the girls was first highlighted in an audit report submitted by TISS to the state’s social welfare department.

The TISS audit report had said that many girls at the shelter home in Bihar had complained of sexual abuse. A special investigation team was formed to probe the complaints.

The NGO running the shelter home in Muzaffarpur was blacklisted and the girls were shifted to shelter homes in Patna and Madhubani. Women staff members of the shelter home and Thakur were among those who were arrested by the police in connection with the case.

(With agency inputs)

First Published: Sep 20, 2018 15:40 IST