Nitish trying to hush up shelter home rapes: Tejashwi

Leader of the Opposition Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday alleged that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is trying to hush up the Muzaffarpur rape incident in which 29 girls staying in ‘Balika Grih’, a short stay home, were sexually abused.

Tejashwi, who led a nine-member delegation of Opposition leaders, including former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi and Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Sadanand Singh, to Muzaffarpur’s shelter home on Wednesday, raised two pointed questions to Nitish.

First, when Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh was ready for a CBI probe into the case in which 29 out of 42 inmates were raped, why was Nitish shying away from issuing a request to the Centre in this regard?

Secondly, why the main accused Brajesh Thakur, who runs the NGO which looks after the ‘Balika Grih’, has not been taken into the police remand and interrogated?

“Right from the beginning, I have maintained that those who have been charged with sexual abuse of 29 girls in Muzaffarpur wield enormous clout. Therefore, they are being shielded by Nitish and his deputy Sushil Modi. Only a CBI investigation (monitored by the Patna High Court) would unravel the truth and bring justice to the hapless girls,” said Tejashwi, who took stock of the premises in Muzaffarpur where the sordid affair took place.

“Without the connivance of senior officials and those running NGOs, such incidents of sexual abuse in large number could not have taken place. This incident is a blot on Bihar,” former Speaker Sadanand Singh told Deccan Herald at Muzaffarpur.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Bihar DGP, KS Dwivedi, on Tuesday admitted that out of 42 girls staying at short-stay home, who underwent the medical test, 29 were found to have been raped. Two of the girls, who gave their statement before a local court under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), identified the main culprit Thakur. The report of sexual exploitation of these girls would have remained under wraps had the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), roped in by the state government for “social audit” of such centres, not submitted its report to the Nitish regime.

Altogether 10 persons, out of 11 accused, have been arrested in the case.