16 cases of sexual abuse in Bihar Shelter Home transferred to CBI
New Delhi, November 29: The Supreme Court has decided to transfer 16 cases related to the sexual harassment and mental exploitation of children in Bihar shelter homes to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on 28th of November.
The CBI is already probing into the cases of Muzaffarpur shelter home cases and now there are 16 more added to their investigating list. The CBI, during the hearing in Supreme Court, stated that the truth is not yet revealed out by the state investigation in relation to the forcible intercourse in the Bihar shelter homes.
The court also asked the CBI to file a status report by January 31, after probing into the irregularities and allegations in relation to the Bihar shelter Homes. The court called the state government's behaviour "shameful" and "inhuman" for not invoking more stringent sections of Indian law when local police filed FIRs. Also the Bihar Government is co-operate with the CBI in the further investigations.
In the Muzaffarpur shelter home, girls were regularly raped, beaten and terrorised, according to a report by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. However, the SC said that action of the Bihar government is unacceptable and shocking.
The Tata Institute of Social Sciences had conducted social audits of all the 110 shelter homes in the state. According to it’s report, there are 17 homes out of 110 which were put under the grave concern.
The bench of Justices Madan Lokur, S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta had directed the chief secretary to rectify the mistake within 24 hours and report on Wednesday. However, it decided to hand over all the cases to CBI and asked it’s counsel to take instructions from the agency and posted the case on Wednesday.