Brajesh Thakur’s driver told the police that the girl was killed and buried after she threatened to expose Thakur. (Photo: Lokesh Bihari)
A CBI team probing the Bihar shelter sexual abuse case has scooped out part of a skull and bones from a spot at a cremation ground near the Muzaffarpur shelter and these may belong to a girl who went missing from the shelter home, sources said. The spot was identified by main accused Brajesh Thakur’s driver, who had told the police during interrogation that the girl was allegedly killed and buried there after she threatened to expose Thakur.
Muzaffarpur Police had two months ago dug the front portion of the shelter home in search of the missing teenaged girl, reportedly from the National Capital Region, but had not found any evidence.
Six girls had gone missing from Thakur’s shelter home in 2013 — two were found dead, three had got married and one was still missing. Police had tried to trace the girl’s address but it was found to be incorrect. The bones form “very important evidence” for the CBI, which can match DNA samples once the girl’s parents are located.
A missing person’s complaint was earlier filed at the Town police station but it was made into an FIR only in July after medical reports confirmed sexual abuse of more than 30 girls at the Muzaffarpur shelter home. All inmates were shifted to other shelters in May, a month after a TISS report suggested sexual abuse in at least six shelter homes, including the one at Muzaffarpur.
CBI spokesperson Abhishek Dayal confirmed that the recovery was made at Akhara Ghat cremation ground in Muzaffarpur town. “Brajesh Thakur’s driver Vijay Kumar, whom we had taken on remand, told us that a girl who had threatened to expose Brajesh Thakur, was killed and buried at the cremation ground, barely two kilometres from Thakur’s shelter,” a member of the probe team said.
The agency’s focus is to trace the parents of the girl, the source said. “Muzaffarpur police team had tried to trace her address which was found to be incorrect. We have to search records again at Thakur’s shelter to know the correct address of the girl, who could have been killed,” said the CBI source.
A Muzaffarpur Police officer said, “Bones recovered from a cremation ground create doubts because it is a public cremation ground and one cannot be too sure if it belongs to the same girl. But this can still help the CBI establish some link as there is a library building near the cremation ground. It is quite possible the girl would have been first brought from the shelter to the library belonging to a relative of Thakur, and then killed and buried. Further interrogation of Thakur’s driver can throw more light on the matter.”