Lalu Yadav took a dig at the Nitish Kumar government on Twitter
RJD national president Lalu Yadav on Monday alleged that the state-funded shelter homes in Bihar are in "inhuman and horrifying" conditions and the girls lodged there were "continuously being abused" despite warnings to the Nitish Kumar government by the Supreme Court.
"In spite of the Supreme Court's directive, whatever is happening in Bihar's shelter homes is totally inhuman and horrifying. Poor and innocent girls are continuously being abused, harassed, assaulted and raped. If the Nitish Kumar government is not listening to the SC, whom they will listen to and how," Lalu Yadav tweeted.
The former Bihar chief minister also tweeted a newspaper report about poor maintenance and services provided at a shelter home in Mokama town, about 100 km from Patna, which was in news following the escape of seven girls on Saturday, six of whom were traced within 24 hours.
Among the girls who had gone missing, five including the one who is still traceless were earlier said to have been at the Muzaffarpur shelter home which got embroiled in the infamous sex abuse scandal.
The Supreme Court is monitoring the CBI investigation into the scandal. The agency has also been asked to take over the probe into allegations of sexual abuse at all such shelter homes across the state.
Meanwhile, Bihar DGP Gupteshwar Pandey told reporters in Patna that initial reports which had stated that the girls had escaped from the Mokama shelter home by cutting through the grill of a window appear to be false.
"It now appears that all the girls had made their exit through the gate and some people at the shelter home had assisted them. We are conducting further investigations and action will be taken accordingly," Mr Pandey added.
"We can say this on the basis of feedback received from forensic experts and senior officials including the IG of Patna Zone who had visited the spot and conducted investigations," he said.
Seven minor girls escaped from a care unit at Mokama town in rural Patna in the early hours of Saturday and six of them were found in Darbhanga district.
Opposition parties flayed the NDA government in Bihar, alleging that five of the girls were "witnesses" in the sex scandal being probed by the CBI under the supervision of the Supreme Court, and claimed their escape was a "conspiracy" hatched by the ruling dispensation to protect "big shots".
Whether these girls were in the Muzaffarpur shelter home has not yet been confirmed by the government.