A Delhi Court on 20 January has convicted the NGO owner and former MLA of the Bihar People’s Party Brajesh Thakur, along with 19 others, for sexually assaulting minor girls at Muzaffarpur shelter home in Bihar. However, the court acquitted one of the accused of lack of evidence.
The bench headed by Additional Sessions Judge Saurabh Kulshreshtha convicted the prime accused in the case, Brajesh for aggravated sexual assault and charged him under various sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, Juvenile Justice Act, and Criminal Conspiracy.
In May 2018, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) submitted a report to the Bihar government, highlighting the alleged sexual abuse of minor girls in the shelter homes. Subsequently, an FIR was registered against Brajesh Thakur and other accused, in connection with 15 missing women and children from his Muzaffarpur shelter homes. More than 42 minors were allegedly sexually assaulted in the shelter home, run by Brajesh.
Following the report submitted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, the Central Bureau of Investigation filed a charge sheet against the 21 persons in December 2019 and charged them under Section 34, 120B, 376 of Indian Penal Code and Section 4,6,8,10,12 of the POCSO act along with the other relevant sections.
As per reports, the people who were convicted by the Delhi court include Brajesh Thakur, Shaista Praveen, Rama Shankar, Ravi Roshan, Dilip Verma, Vikash Kumar, Indu Kumari, Meenu Devi, Manju Devi, Chanda Devi, Neha Kumari, Hema Masih, Kiran Kumari, Vijay Kumar Tiwari, Guddu Patel, Kishan Ram, Dr. Ashwini, Ramanuj Thakur, and Rozy Rani. The court further listed the matter on 28 January for arguments on the quantum of sentence.
