New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered that the Muzaffarpur shelter home sexual assault case be transferred from Bihar to a New Delhi court to conclude the trial within six months, saying “enough is enough”, the children cannot be treated like this. The court also pulled up the CBI’s former interim director, M. Nageswar Rao, for transferring an official who was probing the shelter home cases.
“Is this the way you treat the children at shelter homes. You cannot let the officers treat the children the way they are treating them right now... The questions will get enlarged now,” said a three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi.
The bench was irked over the inadequate response of the Bihar government’s counsel on issues like number of shelter homes, their management and the administrative control over them.
“Enough is enough. Children cannot be treated like this. You cannot let your officers to treat children this way. Spare the children,” said the bench, which included Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna.
The matter will now be heard at a court in Saket in New Delhi within two weeks.
The Supreme Court also pulled up the CBI for transferring its former joint director A.K. Sharma, who was probing the shelter home cases.
Taking a serious view of the CBI’s decision to transfer of Mr Sharma, the court summoned Mr Rao to appear in court on February 12.
The bench took serious note of violation of two earlier orders of the apex court and issued contempt notice to Mr Rao for transferring Mr Sharma to the CRPF on January 17 without the court’s permission.
The bench was apprised by lawyer Aparna Bhat, who is assisting the court as an amicus curiae, that the CBI has filed the charge sheet in the Muzaffarpur case on December 19 last year and the trial was yet to begin.
Several girls were allegedly raped and sexually abused at an NGO-run shelter home in Muzaffarpur and the issue had come to light following a report by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).
An FIR was lodged on May 31, 2018, against 11 people following the TISS report. The probe was later taken over by the CBI and so far 17 people have been arrested.
The amicus curiae had told the court that there were 1,028 shelter homes across India where instances of sexual and physical abuse have been reported.
