In a shocking revelation, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has told the Supreme Court that 11 girls from the infamous Muzaffarpur shelter home were murdered by the owner, Brajesh Thakur.
The rape survivors have also given the names of the girls who were killed by Thakur. They were questioned by the investigating officers along with the experts from NIMHANS.
In an affidavit filed at the apex court, the CBI revealed that one of the accused in the shelter home rape and murder case, Guddu Patel, had led the investigating officers to a particular spot in the burial ground. They stated that a bundle of bones was recovered from the spot.
The CBI shared this information as a reply to the allegations that they were trying to protect influential people by shielding the real perpetrators. The whole incident had come to light after the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) shared a report which claimed that several girls from shelter homes in Bihar were physically and sexually abused.
The CBI inspected the Muzaffarpur shelter home's records after suspecting possible death and found that 35 girls with identical or similar names lived there at one point of time.
The CBI affidavit came as a response to a petition filed by activist Nivedita Jha, who accused the agency of protecting Thakur and other accused in the case. The petition, filed through advocate Fauzia Shakil, said the investigation conducted by the CBI was not only "incomplete but ex facie also appeared to be hogwash", reports TOI.
The petitioner also claimed that victims have given a statement to CBI that they were sent to hotels and were also raped by outsiders and friends of Thakur who visited the shelter home. She said that it is very evident from the victims' statements that a large scale prostitution racket was run by Brajesh Thakur at the shelter home.
In November 2018, the top court had asked the CBI to probe into the allegation and accusations by the TISS report, which stated that the shelter home inmates were physically and sexually abused.
In February, the Supreme Court had transferred the case from Bihar to a Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court in Delhi.
