Muzaffarpur rapes: Bihar Police say 29 inmates were sexually assaulted at shelter for girls
The director general of police said there was no need for a CBI inquiry into the matter.
The Bihar Police on Tuesday said 29 inmates at a girl’s shelter home in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur have been raped. On Monday, the police had said that 16 girls were sexually assaulted.
“Out of the 44 girls from the Muzaffarpur shelter home, 42 were medically examined and their reports now show 29 of them had had sexual contact,” State Director General of Police KS Dwivedi told journalists in Patna according to The Hindu. Two girls were not sent for a medical examination as they were unwell.
The police had said that an inmate of the state-run shelter home had alleged that the body of a girl was buried on the premises after being allegedly sexual assault of dozens of fellow inmates.
The police are still awaiting medical reports of 13 of the 44 inmates at the home.
Dwivedi said there was no need to hand over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation as the police were doing a satisfactory job. Earlier on Tuesday, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the Centre will consider an inquiry by the CBI into the incident if the state government makes such a recommendation.
The police said they had arrested 10 of the 11 accused in the case. “[Accused] Dilip Verma is still absconding,” Dwivedi said. The director general of police dismissed queries about girls missing from the shelter. “Four girls were reported missing from the shelter home from December 2013 to 2018. Of these, three have been reported dead, while one had married and was living in Muzaffarpur,” he said.
Mumbai’s Tata Institute of Social Sciences had reported repeated sexual abuse of the inmates at the shelter in its audit report, Social Welfare Department Principal Secretary Atul Prasad said. The institute submitted its report in April and the government lodged a first information report on May 31, the social welfare department officer said.