PATNA: Minor girls lodged at a disgraced government-run shelter home in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur were forced to entertain male guests by dancing in scanty clothes to the tunes of vulgar songs before being raped by them, according to the charge-sheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The charge-sheet names 21 people as accused, including Brajesh Thakur, the politically connected owner of Seva Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti (SSVS), the NGO that ran the shelter home, and seven of its women employees.

It was Thakur, currently lodged in a jail in Patiala in Punjab, who forced the hapless minor girls to entertain the male guests routinely visiting the shelter home, Balika Grih, late in the evenings. If the girls, aged between seven and 18, refused to comply, they were given only chapattis and salt in dinner while those who complied were served proper dinner, notes the 73-page charge-sheet submitted by CBI at a special POCSO court in Muzaffarpur on December 19.

Thakur, who owned three small newspapers and was allegedly close to politicians from Bihar’s ruling JD(U), also sexually assaulted the girls, found the CBI. the charge-sheet also named child protection officer Ravi Kumar Roshan and Ramanuj Thakur alias Mamu among those who often helped Thakur force the girls to dance in front of the male guests and then raping them, says the charge-sheet.

Medical examinations of the minor girls lodged at the Balika Grih shelter home run by Thakur confirmed that at least 34 of them were raped several times during the months they stayed at the facility. Thakur, who was described by the Supreme Court as a “very influential man,” was shifted to the Patiala jail from a jail in Bihar recently after CBI accused him of trying to influence witnesses and destroying evidence in the scandal.

The horrific sexual abuses came to light in a social audit report of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in April 2018, leading to Muzaffarpur police to register an FIR against 11 people in May 2018. Massive public and political outcry over the scandal prompted Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to order a CBI probe on July 26, 2018.

Bihar’s then social welfare minister Manju Verma, whose husband and former JD(U) legislator Chandreshwar Verma was accused of frequenting the shelter home and having close links with Brajesh Thakur, was forced to resign on August 8, 2018. The couple is currently in jail after a CBI raid at their home in connection with the scandal found illegal ammunition.