Hang all guilty within three months, says CM Kejriwal

New Delhi: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday sought quick justice and “hanging” of the guilty within three months in connection with the alleged rape of young girls at a shelter-home in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district.

He was addressing a gathering at Jantar Mantar here during a protest, in which leaders of a number of opposition parties joined to show solidarity with the victims.

Recalling the Nirbhaya gangrape incident of 2012 in Delhi, Mr Kejriwal said a probe should be hastened to give death sentence to the accused for such heinous crimes.

“I demand that this case be probed in three months and the accused be hanged, irrespective of which party they belong to,” he said.

The Delhi chief minister alleged that the accused have connections with influential people.

“The case had been flagged and civil society had warned about it, but still the torture of the girls continued. It shows the accused involved in it have connections with influential people,” he alleged.

The Muzaffarpur shelter home incident had come to light in a social audit conducted by Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).

An FIR was lodged by the state social welfare department in June, which led to the arrest of 10 people.

Medical reports have confirmed sexual abuse of more than 30 girls formerly lodged at the shelter home, which has since been sealed. The case was handed over to the CBI last week.

“People who are trying to protect the accused are bigger culprits,” Kejriwal said. On Saturday, the Delhi Commission for Women chairperson Swati Maliwal also wrote to Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, asking him about the steps being taken by his government to ensure well being of the girls who were allegedly sexually assaulted at a shelter home in Muzaff-arpur. She asked if the girls were being sent to school or if they are being given counselling. She also asked Kumar to ensu-re that the girls are not pressured in to changing their statements.