Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case: Delhi court convicts Brajesh Thakur, 18 others for gangrape, aggravated sexual assault under POCSO Act

A Delhi court on Monday convicted Brajesh Thakur, the main accused in the sexual and physical assault on several girls in a Muzaffarpur shelter home, for gang rape and aggravated penetrative sexual assault. Eighteen others were also held guilty. The court will hear arguments before pronouncing the quantum of sentence on 28 January at 11 am.

According to reports, 19 out of 20 accused have been convicted by the court. One accused, Vicky, has been acquitted by additional sessions judge Dr Saurabh Kulshreshtha. According to Bar&Bench, Thakur has also been convicted for the commission of offence of rape. Thakur has also been convicted under Section 6 of the POCSO Act, and offences under Juvenile Justice Act.

News18 reported that soon after the court announced its decision, one of the convicts broke down and said, "I didn't even touch the girls. I will commit suicide."  The report also said that the accused included eight women and 12 men.

The court also charged Thakur, his employees, and officials of the Bihar Social Welfare Department with "criminal conspiracy, neglect of duty, failure to report the assault on the girls, and cruelty to children under their authority."

The Delhi court on 18 January dismissed a plea filed by Thakur which claimed that testimonies of witnesses in the case were not reliable. During an in-camera proceeding, Kulshreshtha had rejected the plea on the ground that the case of sexual assault was different from the case of alleged murder of some of the girls in the shelter home, said a lawyer privy to the matter.

File image of Brajesh Thakur, prime accused in the case. PTI

The CBI had told the court that the probe agency had just given an interim report in the Supreme Court stating they had found no evidence against the allegations of murder and in fact the girls who were believed to have been murdered were found to be alive, the lawyer said. The case of alleged murder of girls in the shelter home and the case of alleged sexual assault were two different cases, the CBI said.

The probe agency, in its reply filed before the court, said that they have not yet given a clean chit to the accused against the allegations of murder and the statement in the top court was just an interim report. The court had earlier deferred for the third time pronouncement of judgement in the case till 20 January after the petition was filed before it.

The plea said the CBI on 8 January submitted a status report in the Supreme Court wherein it said that the some of the girls of the shelter home, who were thought to be allegedly murdered, were alive. Thakur's petition, filed through advocate PK Dubey, has claimed that the prosecution witnesses in the shelter home sexual assault case were not trustworthy as the investigation into the allegations of murder were based on their statements.

These facts were relevant and essential for a fair trial, it said.

With inputs from agencies