More chilling facts have emerged from the temporary shelter home in Muzaffarpur with officials and doctors confirming the brutalities being routinely committed against girl inmates as young as seven-year-old.
The administration started digging the compound of the Balika Grih, on Monday, after some girl inmates alleged that some of the girls had been killed and buried inside the premise. As alleged by former deputy chief minister of Bihar, Tejashwi Tadav, the government-run shelter was being run by one Brajesh Thakur, a local journalist and strong man, with close connection to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Thakur, along with nine others, were arrested after a Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) social audit report exposed the organised sexual exploitation of inmates. According to new details, the girls as young as seven would routinely be drugged, suffer physical torutr before being sexually exploited.
Yadav had also tweeted a screenshot of a newspaper, which he claimed was being published by Thakur and circulated inside the Bihar assembly. The former deputy chief minister of the state also wrote that Thakur was a ‘blue eyed boy’ of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. He wrote, “The influential owner of NGO & main accused of rape of 40 minor girls runs a news paper ‘प्रातः कमल’ and one other.His newspaper is being circulated in Bihar Assembly. He is blue eyed boy of CM Nitish, Dy CM Sushil Modi, a local Minister of his town & who’s who of govt.”
The influential owner of NGO & main accused of rape of 40 minor girls runs a news paper ‘प्रातः कमल’ and one other.His newspaper is being circulated in Bihar Assembly.
He is blue eyed boy of CM Nitish, Dy CM Sushil Modi, a local Minister of his town & who’s who of govt. pic.twitter.com/xih2lHBUCX
— Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) July 23, 2018
21 out of 44 girl inmates were raped at the shelter home. The medical examinations of 16 girls have already confirmed the sexual brutalities against them. Most of them have had cut and injury marks.
“It has emerged that they were subjected to drug injection on daily basis before someone sexually assaulted them. We can clearly see signs of injection wounds. Now they are showing signs of aggressive behavior. Some of them tried to smash their heads against the metal grill. Abnormal behavior include breaking anything they find nearby like electric switchboard,” one official was quoted by News18.
What’s even more shocking is that some child welfare committee members and head of the organisation too are believed to be involved in what appeared to be an organised crimes against girls in Muzaffarpur shelter home. “This is quite grave, as these are the same persons who are entrusted with the responsibility of protecting these girl children,” another official said.
As many as 30 survivors are reported to be suffering from severe trauma and tried to inflict injuries and kill themselves. The shelter reportedly received an annual grant of Rs 34 lakh from the state government.
Police have shifted the inmates to different shelter homes in Madhubani and Patna.