Bihar Police SIT to probe sexual abuse case in state-funded shelter home for minor girls in Muzaffarpur

Muzaffarpur: A Special Investigating Team (SIT) has been set up to probe into the alleged sexual exploitation of inmates at a shelter home for minor girls in Muzaffarpur, even as nine persons have been arrested in this connection so far, a senior police officer said on Friday. [caption id=“attachment_506915” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image of a children’s home in India. Reuters[/caption] An FIR was lodged earlier this month by the state Social Welfare Department. The NGO running the shelter home was blacklisted, after a Mumbai-based institute, in its social audit report, claimed that many of the girls had complained of sexual abuse. “We have arrested nine persons so far, including Brajesh Thakur who runs the NGO. They have been booked under the stringent POCSO Act and relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code. We are on the lookout for a few more persons who are absconding and they would be nabbed soon,” senior superintendent of police of Muzaffarpur, Harpreet Kaur, told reporters here. “We have involved the CID and a SIT has been set up, comprising women police personnel and headed by an officer of the rank of Deputy SP. We will ensure that the investigation is fair, impartial and effective,” she said. Replying to a query, the SSP said among the nine persons who have been arrested, seven were women all of them staff members of the state-funded shelter home which was housing close to 50 girls. She also said that all the girls staying at the shelter home here have been shifted to Madhubani and Patna while the district child protection unit here has taken the building under control, as per directions from the Directorate of Social Welfare.