Patna: Bihar chief minister has ordered an inquiry by Central Bureau of Investigation into a sex scandal at a shelter home. A police report confirmed the rape of 29 girls out of 43 housed in the home.
“The state government is committed to an impartial probe into the reprehensible incident at the shelter home for girls and hence has ordered a CBI probe,” a press statement issued by the state Information and Public Relations Department said on Thursday.
According to the official statement, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has directed the Chief Secretary, Director General of Police (DGP) and Principal Secretary (Home Department) to hand over the case to the CBI.
The order for the CBI inquiry came hours after a delegation led by leader of the opposition in Bihar assembly Tejashwi Yadav visited the shelter home in Muzaffarpur district on Wednesday to inquire into the scandal. Yadav subsequently accused the stare government of protecting the suspects involved in the incident.
“Nothing less than a CBI probe is acceptable to us. The state government is trying to save the accused persons,” said Yadav.
He said the Patna High Court should supervise the CBI probe. The opposition delegation that visited the shelter home comprised Sadanand Singh, Congress Legislature Party leader, Jitan Ram Manjhi, Hindustani Awam Morcha president, Abdul Bari Siddiqui (RJD) and Mehboob Alam of Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist).
The sex scandal rocked both the Bihar state assembly and the Parliament. The proceedings of Bihar state assembly have remained disrupted over the issue since the start of monsoon session last week.
The issue also featured prominently in the parliament with Manoj Jha and Jayprakash Narayan Yadav of the RJD and Ranjeeta Ranjan of the Congress party raising the issue earlier this week.
The sex scandal was exposed after a team from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences conducted an audit of the shelter home in February. The police immediately rescued all girls and arrested 10 suspects involved in the incident.
The state government has announced deployment of transgenders for the security at all shelter homes in the state to save the girls from sexual exploitation.
