Delhi court convicts 19 for Bihar home sexual abuse
Thakur guilty of rape; sentencing hearing on Jan 28
NEWDELHI/PATNA: A court in Delhi convicted on Monday 19 people, including key accused Brajesh Thakur, in a one-and-half-yearold case of sexual and physical assault on underage girls at a shelter home in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur, delivering its judgment in the scandal that sparked countrywide outrage and led to the ouster of a state minister.
Thakur, whose non-governmental organisation (NGO) owned the shelter home, and four others, including Dilip Kumar Verma, a former chairperson of the state’s Child Welfare Committee (CWC), were found guilty of aggravated sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, criminal conspiracy, rape and gang rape, among other offences.
One person was acquitted by additional sessions judge Saurabh Kulshreshtha, who said arguments on the sentencing of the 19 convicts — 11 men and eight women — will be heard on January 28. Five former employees of the shelter home, two former members of the child welfare panel and two officials of the Bihar social welfare department are among those convicted.
The maximum sentence that can be handed to Thakur is life imprisonment for the remainder of his life, according to legal experts. The amendment to the POCSO Act, which introduced death penalty for sexually abus-
ing minors below 12 years in 2019, will not be applicable because the case dates back to 2018, said advocate Prabhsahay Kaur.
The shelter home came under the spotlight after the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) submitted an audit report to the Bihar government’s social welfare department in April 2018, highlighting the alleged sexual assault on minor inmates there.
Thakur, who ran the NGO Sewa Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti, and seven others were arrested on June 3, 2018. In July that year, the Bihar government recommended an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation
(CBI), which filed its charge sheet by the end of 2018 and named 21 people. One of them is absconding.
According to public prosecutors, the court in Delhi’s Saket, which heard the case on the Supreme Court’s directions, examined 69 prosecution witnesses and 20 defence witnesses during the trial.
The judge also held the convicts guilty of different offences from abetment to criminal conspiracy to causing hurt, and relevant sections of the POCSO and Juvenile Justice Acts. Rosy Rani, the former additional director of the district child protection unit under the social welfare department, Bihar government, was found guilty of not reporting the offence. As the judge pronounced his order around 2pm, many of the convicts and their family members broke down in the packed courtroom.
“I have not committed such shameful acts on the girls. You are sending me to jail for these acts. I will commit suicide inside the jail,” Ravi Roushan, a former member of the Child Welfare Committee said.