A special court in Bihar on Wednesday remanded two aides of Brajesh Thakur, the main accused in the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case, to five days in custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation, PTI reported.

The court turned down the investigating agency’s request for seven-day custody of Ashwani Kumar and Shaista Praveen alias Madhu, and posted the matter for further hearing on November 26.

The CBI had arrested Kumar, a private medical practitioner who allegedly injected girls at the shelter home with sedatives, on Tuesday. Praveen, who allegedly liaised with influential people to promote Thakur’s newspapers and other businesses, was arrested on Wednesday morning after she surrendered in the special court in Muzaffarpur.

Praveen underwent medical tests at the Sadar Hospital before being produced in court with Kumar. She claimed she did not appear before the CBI earlier as she had not been named as an accused. Praveen told the court she had no information about the alleged sexual assaults at the shelter home.

Former state minister Manju Verma had surrendered in a court in Begusarai in connection with the case on Tuesday.

The sexual exploitation of children at the shelter run by Thakur came to light in April after the Tata Institute of Social Sciences submitted an audit report of 110 shelter homes in the state. The audit had been ordered by the state government, which filed a first information report against 11 people – including Thakur – on May 31. A medical report confirmed the sexual assault of 34 inmates at the shelter.