Muzaffarpur shelter home case: SC directs CBI to catch outsiders who visited home to rape girls

NEW DELHI: As rape victims of Muzaffarpur shelter home recorded their statements and made reference to one " tondwale uncle Netaji" (uncle with paunch) and also to one " moochwale uncle ji" (uncle with moustache) who used to visit the shelter home to sexually assault them, the Supreme Court on Monday directed the CBI to find out their identity and catch them within three months.
A vacation bench of Justices Indu Malhotra and MR Shah rejected the plea of CBI which sought six months more time to complete the investigation and directed it to complete the task within three months. Placing the status report before the bench, additional solicitor general Madhavi Divan said that the agency had unearthed remains of two dead bodies and it was waiting for forensic report to identify the deceased.
Refuting the allegation that the agency was trying to protect the influential people involved in the case by not slapping murder charges against them, Divan told the bench that probe was still going on into disappearance of 11 girls from the home who were allegedly murdered by main accused Brajesh Thakur. She said that the 21 accused in the case had been charged with most heinous offence and trial in rape and sexual assault case was going on.
In an affidavit filed in the court, the CBI said, "The victims during there examination in the presence of experts of NIMHANS had revealed names of 11 girls who were allegedly murdered by Brajesh Thakur and his accomplices. These allegations are being duly investigated in the right earnest in the instant case by scrutinising the Master Register maintained at the Balikagrih to locate the dead body, field level verification as to existence of the girls alleged to be murdered."
Advocate Aparna Bhat, who is assisting the court as amicus curie, told the bench that probe should also be conducted against people for subjecting the girls to unnatural sex and for video recording the incident. She also pleaded the probe should not be delayed and the victims will be forced to go through the trauma of revising those horrible times during investigation.
Agreeing with Bhat's plea, the bench directed the agency to probe into all aspects including finding outsiders who were involved and facilitated sexual assault of inmates after administering them drugs and intoxicants.
The court was hearing an application filed by Patna-based social activist Nivedita Jha who approached SC through advocate Fauzia Shakil and raised questions on CBI's ongoing probe. It said that victims had stated to the CBI that they were sent to hotels and were also raped by outsiders and friends of Thakur who would visit the Balika Grih and but the agency failed to conduct probe to catch those people. Jha alleged that victims had allegedly recorded their statements before the Judicial Magistrate and had made reference to one "tondwale uncle Netaji" and also to one "moochwale uncle ji" who used to visit the shelter home but the agency had not find them out.
"It is evident from the statement of the victims, that a large scale prostitution racket was being run by Brajesh Thakur. From the perusal of the chargesheet, it is apparent that the CBI is trying to shield the real perpetrators and has intentionally avoided to investigate the leads given by the victims about the outsiders and the alleged friends of Thakur who were involved in the offence. It is unclear from a perusal of the chargesheet whether identity sketches have been prepared by the CBI on the basis of the physical description of the perpetrators given by the victims," the petition said.