A special court, which on January 20 held Brajesh Thakur and 18 others guilty of sexually and physically assaulting girl inmates of a shelter home in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur, on Tuesday reserved its verdict on the quantum of sentence for February 11. The CBI sought life imprisonment for Thakur and the maximum punishment for the others. Lawyers for the convicts argued for a minimum sentence.
The court had earlier convicted Thakur of the charge of aggravated penetrative sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, and of gang-rape, rape and other related crimes under the Indian Penal Code and the Juvenile Justice Act. Vijay Kumar Tiwari, Guddu Patel, Ramanuj Thakur and Kishan Kumar were also found guilty of committing aggravated penetrative sexual assault, rape, gang-rape and other related crimes.
One accused, Vicky, was acquitted. Rosy Rani, a former Assistant Director of the Child Protection Unit, was also convicted. But she had already served out the maximum punishment of six months, hence she was granted bail.
Among the convicts are Dillip Kumar Verma, a Child Welfare Committee chairman in Muzaffarpur, Vikas Kumar, a former member of the committee, and Ravi Roshan, Child Protection Officer. Rama Shankar Singh and Ashwani were convicted of the charge of criminal conspiracy and abetting rape.
Thakur’s close aide Shaista Praveen, who was arrested by the CBI, Indu Kumari, Manju Devi, Minu Devi, Chanda Devi, Hema Masih, Neha Kumari and Kiran Kumari were also convicted of the charge of abetting rape and allied offences.
The shelter home was run by a non-governmental organisation, Sewa Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti. The instances of sexual assault of inmates were first recorded by a research team of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.
