NGO owner Thakur, 18 others convicted in Bihar shelter home case

A Delhi court on Monday (January 20) convicted Brajesh Thakur and 18 others for sexual and physical assault on several girls in a Muzaffarpur shelter home.

Brajesh Thakur, who ran the shelter was a former MLA of Bihar Peoples Party (BPP).

Additional Sessions Judge Saurabh Kulshreshtha convicted Thakur for aggravated sexual assault under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and gang rape. The court acquitted one of the accused in the case. The accused included 12 men and eight women.

All 19 convicts will be sentenced on January 28 at 10 am.

The matter had come to light after the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) submitted a report to the Bihar government on May 26, 2018, highlighting the sexual abuse of minor girls in the shelter home for the first time.

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Young girls were forced to dance to vulgar songs, sedated and raped at the government-run shelter in the scandal that exposed the role of influential politicians and bureaucrats.

(With inputs from agencies)