7 Accused In Bihar Shelter Home Case Taken To Delhi For Trial

Seven accused in the Bihar shelter home sex scandal, including a few key aides and close relatives of the prime accused Brajesh Thakur, were today taken to Delhi to be presented before the the Special POCSO court. The Supreme Court had transferred the trial of the case to the court in Delhi's Saket area.

The accused sent to Delhi include Shaista Parveen alias Madhu who ran many businesses of Brajesh Thakur, Mohd Sahil alias Vicky, Brajesh Thakur's uncle Ramanuj, a former Child Welfare Committee president Dilip Verma and the state-funded shelter homes manager Ramashankar Singh.

The accused will be presented before the court in Saket tomorrow.

Nearly a score of people have been arrested in connection with the scandal which came to light after sexual abuse of inmates was found by Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences in a report of social audit.

The accused have been lodged in various jails across Bihar, while Brajesh Thakur himself is lodged in a prison at Patiala.

Brajesh Thakur owned the NGO Seva Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti, which ran the shelter home located inside the premises of a Hindi daily he edited, which was located adjacent to his own home.

He is currently lodged inside a jail in Patiala after a direction to the effect was issued to the CBI by the Supreme Court.

The scandal was handed over to the CBI in July last year, about a couple of months after the police lodged an FIR.

The Supreme Court earlier this week expressed serious dissatisfaction with the pace of investigations and slammed the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar for not doing its bit and ordered transfer of trial to the Saket court.

Meanwhile, municipal authorities also began the work of demolishing the structure inside which the Balika Grih (shelter home for girls) ran. 

In the course of investigations, it came to light that the building was constructed illegally.

Demolition work had begun in December last year but was thereafter halted in view of Brajesh Thakur's family moving a court challenging the same.

The court, however, disposed of the petition with a direction to the municipal authorities to look into the objections raised by the petitioners and, accordingly, take appropriate action.