SC orders CBI probe against Bihar shelter homes

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday handed over the investigation into all the 17 cases of sexual abuse and exploitation of children at shelter homes in Bihar to the CBI.

Handing over the investigation, the court said: “If the state government had done its job properly, the cases may not have gone to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).”

A bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur, Justice S. Abdul Nazeer and Justice Deepak Gupta directed the Bihar government to provide all the manpower, resources and logistical support to the CBI even as counsel for the state government made a last ditch bid to keep the investigation with the Bihar Police.

Permitting the CBI to expand its existing team of investigators that was already probed the Muzaffarpur horror, the court said that none of the member of the investigating team would be withdrawn without the permission of the court.

This takes up the number of cases CBI is probing to 17 as the agency is already probing the Muzaffarpur shelter home case.

The 17 shelter homes were indicted in a study by Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences. But, the state government registered criminal cases against only 10 shelter homes. Over the last few weeks, the Supreme Court has taken the Bihar government to task on several occasions for its handling of the probe.

On Wednesday, CBI informed the court it had no objection in taking up the cases. This came after the top court rapped the agency whose lawyer told the court that interim director of the CBI M. Nageswar Rao was unable to give a view on the matter as he had been barred from taking any major policy decision.