A Saket court in Delhi on Monday held 19 persons, including prime accused and former MLA, Brajesh Thakur as guilty in the case related to sexual exploitation of young girls in Bihar's Muzaffarpur shelter home.
Additional Sessions Judge Saurabh Kulshreshtha convicted the accused of the offences of rape, gang rape, aggravated sexual assault among others under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offence Act.
The court put January 28 as the date for hearing arguments on quantum of sentence against all the convicts including former Bihar People Party MLA, Thakur, who ran the shelter home, through his NGO 'Seva Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti'.
Of 20 accused 12 men and eight women, one person was acquitted due to lack of sufficient evidence.
The CBI has taken over the investigation in the case on July 28, 2018, after the issue of sexual exploitation of young girls came to light on an audit report by Tata Institution of Social Sciences, causing widespread outrage across the country and a huge embarrassment to the Nitish Kumar government. The case was subsequently on February 7, 2019, transferred to Delhi court for trial.
(Published 20 January 2020, 09:47 IST)
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