The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed for shifting of Brajesh Thakur -- the main accused in Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case -- to Patiala prison from Bihar's Bhagalpur jail.
A bench headed by Justice Madan B. Lokur ordered for Thakur's shifting to the high-security prison in Punjab, despite the defence counsel suggestion to shift him to Delhi.
"No, no, Delhi is already polluted (overcrowded)," Justice Lokur said.
The court also expressed its displeasure over the police not arresting another accused and former Bihar Minister Manju Verma. She was a Minister in Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led government.
"Her bail was rejected on October 9. Why have you not arrested her...because she was a Cabinet Minister? Nobody could trace her. Why was she not arrested?" Justice Lokur asked, brushing aside all explanations by senior counsel Ranjit Kumar appearing for the state.
Pointing to the depravity of the crime where 34 of the 41 minors housed in a short-stay home were confirmed to have been raped, Justice Lokur said: "These girls were injected with drugs and a person is allowed to construct a four-storeyed building without windows!"
Describing what all has happened as "indefensible", senior counsel Kumar said the authorities are looking into how the building was constructed, who sanctioned the plan and why it should not be demolished.
The court also questioned the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) over changing the team investigating the case despite its orders.
Telling the CBI officer present in the court that it had issued the September 20 order on keeping intact the investigating team, the court directed that the names of the officers who were there in the investigating team and that of those who are at present in the team be placed before it on Wednesday morning.
--IANS
pk/nir
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