Muzaffarpur shelter home: Court to pronounce order Feb 11

New Delhi: A Delhi court will pronounce the order on the sentencing of 19 convicts in Muzaffarpur shelter home case on February 11 at 2 p.m.

The court had on January 20 convicted 19 accused, including NGO owner Brajesh Thakur, for sexually and physically assaulting girl inmates at a shelter home in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district.

Additional Sessions Judge Saurabh Kulshreshtha of Saket court posted the date after hearing arguments from both the defence and the prosecution.

While the prosecution sought for the stricter punishment and life imprisonment for the convicts, the defence requested the court to be lenient.

The court held Thakur, a former Bihar People’s Party legislator, guilty of rape, gang-rape and aggravated sexual assault under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Juvenile Justice Act. The court, however, acquitted one accused.

Thakur is the owner of an NGO, Sewa Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti, which ran the shelter home.

The case pertains to the allegation that several girl inmates of the shelter home were sexually assaulted. The matter came to light following a report published by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).

The accused included eight females and 12 males. Thakur was the prime accused in the case. The accused included employees of his shelter home and Bihar department of social welfare officials.

The court had on March 20, 2019, framed charges against them for offences of criminal conspiracy to commit rape and penetrative sexual assault against minors.

The case was, however, transferred from a local court in Muzaffarpur in Bihar to the POCSO court at Saket in Delhi last year on the Supreme Court’s directions.

IANS