Brajesh Thakur was last month convicted for aggravated sexual assault (File)
Brajesh Thakur, who ran Bihar's Muzaffarpur shelter where girls were sexually and physically assaulted for months, has been sentenced to life imprisonment. 11 others have also been sentenced for life, news agency PTI reported.
The crime was revealed in 2018 when a team of Tata Institute of Social Sciences submitted a report to the Bihar government highlighting the sexual abuse of girls in the shelter, causing national outrage.
Young girls were forced to dance to vulgar songs, sedated and raped at the government-run shelter in a scandal. The role of politicians and senior officers had also come to fore.
The fallout of the case included the resignation of Manju Verma, a member of the ruling Janata Dal United in the state and then the Social Welfare Minister, after it emerged that Brajesh Thakur had links with her husband.
Brajesh Thakur was last month convicted for aggravated sexual assault under the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act. In addition, 19 of 20 accused - eight women and 12 men - including the former Bihar People's Party MLA, were found guilty on a number of other charges, including criminal conspiracy to commit rape and penetrative sexual assault against minors.
The Central Bureau of Investigation earlier this month had sought life imprisonment for the main convicts - Thakur, Dillip Kumar Verma, Ravi Roshan, Vikas Kumar, Vijay Kumar Tiwari - who were convicted of sexual assault.
After the case made headlines the Bihar government shifted the girls to other protection homes and, on May 31, 2018, lodged an FIR against the accused. The Supreme Court took cognisance of the matter in August and transferred the probe to the CBI on November 28.
With inputs from PTI