The issue of alleged sexual exploitation of girls at a government-funded shelter home in Muzaffarpur rocked the Bihar Assembly today, with the opposition RJD sticking to its demand of a CBI probe, while the state police said there was no need to involve the central agency.
Director General of Police K S Dwivedi said medical examinations of 29 of the 42 inmates confirmed that they were sexually exploited but added there was no need for a probe by the CBI.
Two other inmates could not undergo the test as they were unwell, he said.
Raising the issue in the Assembly, Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav said the JD(U)-BJP state government was trying to evade responsibility in the matter and it was only after a court order that the action was taken.
Yadav told the house that the government appears to be "shielding" the guilty.
There has been no let up in crimes against women notwithstanding the claims by the government that they could safely move around even in the night, he alleged.
Recent incidents in many districts show that girls are not safe even when accompanied by their parents, he said.
"We stick to our demand for a CBI inquiry into the matter. In view of the seriousness of the matter involved, we would like the probe to be monitored by the High Court," Yadav told reporters outside the Assembly.
Responding to the charges, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi told the House that the government was trying to neither shield nor implicate anyone. "The matter had come to light not because of you (opposition) but because of a social audit conducted by the government itself," he said.
Modi said the government had not shied away from taking action against any of the accused, including Brajesh Thakur, who controlled the NGO that ran the shelter home and was said to be close to many people in the ruling dispensation.
"This is not a government which would seek to protect a Rajballabh Yadav," the deputy chief minister said, referring to an RJD MLA who is in jail in connection with a rape case, which had come to light two years ago when Yadav's party was a part of the ruling Grand Alliance.
Meanwhile, DGP K S Dwivedi said he was fully satisfied with the progress of police investigation in the case so far and that 10 of the accused have already been arrested while efforts were on to nab an absconding one.
He said three inmates had alleged that a girl was killed and buried in the compound of the home for resisting sexual exploitation bid, but that no mortal remains were found when the place was dug on permission of a court yesterday.
He said services of a sniffer dog was also taken to find out if there was any body buried nearby, but that it too yielded no positive result. However, soil sample from the place has been sent for forensic tests, he said.
The DGP also said the complainants were not able to reveal the identity of the inmate allegedly killed and buried.
The police were verifying the allegation that four inmates had earlier fled from the shelter home and three others were dead, the DGP said in a press conference.
As per records of the shelter home, only one inmate was missing and she has since been traced by police, he said.
Social Welfare Department Principal Secretary Atul Prasad, who was also present at the press conference, stated that the state government got a social audit done by Mumbai based Tata Institute of Social Sciences and took prompt action on its report about sexual exploitation of the inmates.
"Nothing incriminating could be found from the spot identified by one of the former inmates of the shelter home where, she had claimed, one girl had been buried after being beaten to death," Muzaffarpur Senior Superintendent of Police Harpreet Kaur had said yesterday,
The excavation was stopped, the pit was filled up and a sample of the debris collected from the spot would be sent for forensic tests, she had said.
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