Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Friday called the alleged rapes of minor girls in a shelter home in Muzaffarpur a “matter of shame”, reported PTI. Kumar was speaking at the launch of Mukhyamantri Kanya Utthan Yojana, a scheme for the welfare of girls, in Patna.

Kumar said the alleged abuse “has left us with a sense of shame and guilt”, reiterating that the government would not spare those guilty. “Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi has said on the floor of the Assembly that we would ourselves like the Central Bureau of Investigation probe to be monitored by the High Court,” he said.

Kumar had asked State Director General of Police KS Dwivedi to hand over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation. Three days after the state government’s request, the CBI booked officers and employees of the shelter.

Kumar said he has ordered the state chief secretary to consult the concerned departments and develop institutional mechanisms to prevent the recurrence of such incidents.

On July 23, the Bihar Police excavated the ground at the shelter home to look for the body of a girl allegedly buried there after being raped. An inmate of the home, run by Seva Sankalp Evam Vikash Samiti, had informed the police about the body during an investigation into the alleged sexual assault of dozens of fellow inmates.

The police initially said that 16 girls had been sexually assaulted. Later, the figure went up to 34 after a fresh medical report released by the Patna Medical College and Hospital. Ten of the 11 accused in the case have been arrested so far.

The sexual exploitation came to light after Mumbai’s Tata Institute of Social Sciences submitted an audit report in April and the government filed a first information report on May 31, Social Welfare Department Principal Secretary Atul Prasad had said.