Bihar shelter home case: Girls were killed and buried near the building, the inmates alleged
Highlights
- Ten people, including owner Brajesh Thakur, have been charged
- Brajesh Thakur runs several non-profits
- Girls given sleeping pills on pretext of de-worming, raped at night
Girls as young as seven were drugged, raped, forced to sleep naked and scalded with boiling water at a government-run shelter home in Bihar dubbed the house of horrors. Over 30 girls were raped in the Muzaffarpur home by its politically connected owner and its staff, reveals a police charge-sheet.
Ten people, including owner Brajesh Thakur, have been charged in the document that details a network of police, politicians, administration and criminals exploiting and torturing the girls at the home.
Brajesh Thakur runs several non-profits. The youngest to be raped in the home was a seven-year-old mute child.
The police questioned 48 girls for the charge-sheet, which chronicles the torture, assault and depravity that the shelter home meant for its young inmates.
The girls were given sleeping pills on the pretext of de-worming and raped at night. Many girls told the police that their private parts would hurt badly.
A caretaker, referred to in testimonies as "Kiran Aunty", would allegedly force the girls to sleep naked and would also sleep naked with them and sexually abuse them. Sometimes, the charge-sheet says, Kiran would force the girls into rooms were "galat kaam hota tha (we were raped)."
The girls were beaten and scalding water was thrown on them. The "caretakers" would sit on them and force them to cook rotis.
Some girls have alleged that when one of them got pregnant, she was thrashed and she lost the child.
Others allege girls were killed and buried near the building. A team of policemen dug up the area but the police say they found nothing.
A girl who managed to run away was brought back, tied up and beaten brutally.
When the girls tried to reach out to people outside and complain, no one, including a doctor who visited the home, helped them.
As grisly secrets tumble out of the home each day in the shelter home case, the Nitish Kumar government has been targeted by the opposition, especially former ally RJD. Tejashwi Yadav, who heads the RJD in the absence of his jailed father Lalu Yadav, has accused the state government of links with the accused.