The Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde accepted the status report submitted by the CBI about the lack of evidence of the murder of children in the Muzaffarpur shelter home, Bihar.
Submitting its case, the CBI stated that two skeletons were recovered during the investigation however, the forensic reports revealed that the skeletal remains were not of any children rather they were of a woman and a man.
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 home. Subsequently, an FIR was registered against Brajesh Thakur, a journalist-turned-social activist heading the NGO who ran the shelter home, and other accused, in connection with 15 missing women and children from his Muzaffarpur shelter homes.
Attorney General KK Venugopal, appearing for the probe agency, said an investigation was done on the allegation of rape and sexual assault against the children and charge sheets were filed before the concerned courts. He added that the children, who were alleged to be murdered, were traced and found to be alive.
Venugopal asserted that CBI has investigated cases of 17 shelter homes in Bihar and filed a charge sheet in 13 of them, while in the other four cases a preliminary inquiry was conducted and subsequently, closed for the lack of evidence. He added that the Bihar government has been requested to take departmental action and action of cancellation of registration and blacklisting of concerned NGOs by providing them the result of the present CBI investigation.
