Muzaffarpur shelter home rapes: POCSO court grants ED permission to interrogate main accused Brajesh Thakur

Muzaffarpur: The Special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court on Saturday granted permission to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to interrogate Brajesh Thakur. The ED will interrogate Thakur in the Patiala jail. All the 18 accused in the case including Thakur were produced in the Special POSCO court in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur on Saturday. The court has posted the matter for hearing on 17 January. [caption id=“attachment_4925221” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] The Muzaffarpur shelter home where sexual abuses were reported. Courtesy: News18[/caption] During the course of the hearing, Thakur, the main accused in the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case requested the court to transfer him to a jail in Bihar mentioning that his wife and children are not in good health and they need to be taken care of. Thakur is currently lodged in the Patiala jail after the Supreme Court on 25 October, last year ordered his transfer to a jail outside Bihar saying that he is an influential man and is obstructing the investigation. On 19 December, the ED summoned Brajesh Thakur’s wife Asha Thakur and their son Rahul Anand, on 26 and 24 December, respectively. Meanwhile, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a charge-sheet against 21 people at the POCSO court on Wednesday. The decision to handover the case to CBI was taken by the apex court after the state government failed to file a correct FIR in the incident. More than 40 minor girls were allegedly sexually assaulted over a period of time in the shelter home which was run by Thakur’s state-funded NGO. Subsequently, the NGO was blacklisted and the girls were shifted to other shelter homes in Patna and Madhubani.