Ink thrown at Muzaffarpur prime accused outside court
PATNA: An unidentified person threw black ink on Wednesday on Brajesh Thakur, the main suspect in the Muzaffarpur shelter home sexual abuse scandal. Thakur has alleged that he was being framed as he was about to join the Congress and contest in the next Lok Sabha polls. The party has distanced itself from Thakur.
The accused was being taken for an appearance at the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) court in Muzaffarpur, 70km north of Patna, when the ink was thrown at him by someone from among the crowd of protesters and journalists present outside the court.
The police had detained a woman but released her following protests by activists of the Jan Adhikar Party (JAP).
Thirty-four of the 44 inmates at the state-funded shelter, run by a non-government organisation linked to Thakur, were found to have been subjected to sexual abuse. Reports about the sexual abuse surfaced after Mumbai’s Tata Institute of Social Sciences carried out a social audit of shelter homes in Bihar last year.
Before being produced at the Pocso court, Thakur addressed the media from inside a police van. “I was thinking of joining the Congress and it was almost final that I will contest elections from Muzaffarpur. I am being framed for that reason. None of the girls (inmates at the shelter) has taken my name, you can check in the case diary,” he said. The Congress distanced itself from Thakur. Bihar Congress spokesperson and general secretary Sanjeev Singh said, “Thakur’s claims are baseless. He was not even a primary member of the Congress. In fact, he was an active Janata Dal (United) worker and had even shared the dais with chief minister Nitish Kumar at a few functions.”
On a TV channel, RJD’S chief spokesperson, Bhai Birendra, demanded that the chief minister explain his links with Thakur and undergo a narco test.
Thakur’s claim came four days after Congress president Rahul Gandhi joined RJD’S Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and other Opposition leaders in Delhi to protest the alleged rape of minors.
On his alleged links with Chandeshwar Verma, husband of social welfare minister Manju Verma, Thakur said he occasionally spoke to Verma on political and other issues. Manju Verma resigned from the Nitish Kumar cabinet Wednesday, days after she came under fire for her husband’s association with Thakur.