CBI scans records of Muzaffarpur Town police station

MUZAFFARPUR: A two-member CBI team visited Muzaffarpur Town police station and houses of two girl inmates of the ‘Balika Griha’ on Monday to verify their names and addresses.
The team also quizzed the reader and clerk of the Town police station for nearly an hour and scanned the records relating to the FIRs lodged following the escape of inmates of the Balika Griha.Later, the members visited the houses of two inmates residing under Town and Ahiapur police stations. They inquired about Brajesh Thakur, Kumari Madhu alias Shahista Praveen, Ravi Raushan (a former official of social welfare department) and other arrested accused in the case.
The visiting team also gathered information about the behaviour of Balika Griha employees during their stay there.
The CBI is probing the infamous shelter home sexual abuse case on the direction of the Supreme Court. The matter came to light after an FIR was lodged with the women police station under different sections of IPC and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act) 2012, against the operators of shelter home on a written complaint by the then deputy director, social welfare department, in Muzaffarpur on May 31, 2018.
At least 39 girls were allegedly tortured and sexually assaulted at ‘Balika Grih’, run by an NGO ‘Seva, Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti’ and owned by Brajesh Thakur.
Thakur is presently lodged in Punjab’s Patiala jail. The plight of the victims came to the fore during a social audit conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai.
According to sources, the girls had stayed for nearly one month at the ‘Balika Griha’ after fleeing their homes in February and July in 2017.
The team members, however, refused to talk to media persons. According to CBI sources, different teams of the premier investigation agency have already quizzed more than 50 inmates of the Balika Griha. “We are collecting details of every inmate to unravel the mystery of the case. Quizzing of the inmates is a part of our probe,” sources added.