Muzaffarpur shelter home scandal: CBI arrests one more person

Muzaffarpur (Bihar), Oct 5: One more person was arrested Friday in connection with the shelter home sex scandal by the CBI which produced the accused before a court and obtained his custody for four days.

Gaurava Kumar alias Motu, a former employee of prime accused Brajesh Thakur, was arrested in the town and produced before the Special POCSO court here. Special POCSO judge R P Tiwari granted four days CBI custody of Motu, with whose arrest the total number of persons held so far in the case has reached 15.

The court also granted permission to the investigating agency to send for forensic examination some skeletal remains, which were found during an excavation carried out at a crematorium here earlier this week.

The excavation was carried out following a tip-off by Thakur's driver Vijay. While the case was being investigated by police, one of the inmates at the shelter home had alleged that a girl lodged there had been beaten to death by the staff and her body was buried in the courtyard. However, nothing incremental was found when the courtyard was dug up in July.

The scandal had come to light after a social audit conducted by Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences flagged abuse of inmates at the shelter home, which was run by an NGO headed by Thakur. An FIR was lodged in this connection on the intervention of the Bihar social welfare department.

Thakur, along with nine other accused, was arrested by the police in June. On July 26, the probe was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) following vociferous demands of justice which were echoed in the Parliament and the state assembly. Shortly afterwards, Manju Verma stepped down as the social welfare minister following allegations that her husband had close links with Thakur. Four others, including former assistant director in the social welfare department Rosy Rani, were arrested last month in the case.

PTI