1 officer, 8 others to face punitive action in Muzaffarpur shelter home case

PATNA: One Bihar Administrative Service (BAS) officer and eight other employees of the state social welfare department are to face strong punitive action in the wake of Delhi’s Saket court verdict on Monday in connection with the Muzaffarpur Balika Grih sexual exploitation case.
Highly placed sources said CM Nitish Kumar has already approved the social welfare department’s proposal for dismissal of Rosy Rani from service.She was earlier posted as assistant director in Muzaffarpur. “Now the file has been sent to Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC), which is her appointing authority. After getting the BPSC nod, the cabinet will finally approve her termination,” a source in social welfare department said.
Rosy has been accused of gross criminal negligence, which led to the sexual exploitation of the inmates of Balika Grih in Muzaffarpur town. According to the CBI chargesheet, the then assistant director, Rosy, along with two members of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), had conducted 11 inspections of the controversial shelter home between February 2015 and June 2017.
Rosy, however, reported no mismanagement at the Balika Grih run by NGO Seva Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti, even though several victims in their statements claimed that they had shared with her (Rosy) information about the sexual abuse multiple times. Rosy was replaced by Debesh Kumar Sharma, who served as assistant director from October 2017 to February 2018. Sharma also conducted five inspections and reported no misdemeanour at the Balika Grih, owned by the alleged kingpin of the sex racket Brajesh Thakur. Rosy was suspended soon after her name figured in the case.
Besides Rosy, eight other assistant directors of social security (ADSS) are also likely to face disciplinary action for their acts of omission and commission. They were posted in the 17 shelters homes against whom the CBI had conducted investigation on the basis of the social audit report of the Mumbai based Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). They all were suspended and facing departmental proceedings.
When contacted, additional chief secretary of social welfare department, Atul Prasad, said, “We are in the process of taking a final decision on the quantum of punishment against the social welfare department’s employees concerned. The department proceedings have already been concluded against all the eight employees. I think action against them will be taken in two-three days.”
When asked about the punitive action against Rosy, Prasad said the matter was pending with the state government. “We have already recommended action against her. Since she is a BAS officer, a final decision is to be taken at the government level,” he told this newspaper over phone on Monday.
Prasad, however, made it clear that they were waiting for the CBI report to decide the quantum of punishment against the erring employees. “Now the department is getting reports from the CBI through proper channel against each employee responsible for criminal negligence, action will be taken at the earliest,” he added.
Sources said five deputy collectors, who were ADSS, are to face disciplinary action after going through the CBI reports. The CBI, which had submitted its latest status report in the Supreme Court on Muzaffarpur Balika Grih case on January 8, had recommended action against 71 persons, including 25 then district magistrates.
“It’s up to the general administration department to decide the quantum of punishment against the erring DMs,” said a senior IAS officer.
Meanwhile, all the 36 girl inmates, whose statements were recorded under Section 161 of CrPC, were staying in the shelter homes in Madhubani, Patna and Mokama (Patna rural). Security around those shelter homes has been tightened in the wake of the Monday verdict in which 19 out of the 20 accused were held guilty of rape, conspiracy and aggravated sexual assault of minor girls aged between seven and 17 years.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)