Muzaffarpur Shelter Home: SC terms as 'horrible' and 'scary' details placed before it by CBI
New Delhi, Oct 25 : The Supreme Court Thursday termed as "horrible" and "scary" details placed before it about the investigation into the case of Muzaffarpur shelter home where several girls were allegedly raped and sexually abused.
A bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur perused the status report filed by the CBI and said "what is this going on? This is horrible".
The apex court also took note of the allegations referred by CBI against shelter home owner Brajesh Thakur and issued notice to him to explain why he should not be transferred to a jail outside the state.
The CBI in its report had alleged that Thakur is an influential person and a mobile phone was recovered from him inside the jail where he is currently lodged under judicial custody.
The bench also comprising Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta noted that Thakur is an influential person
The top court also asked Bihar and he CBI to explain the delay in tracing the whereabouts of ex-minister Manju Verma's husband Chandrashekhar Verma.
It had asked the Bihar Police to investigate the former minister and her husband in connection with the recovery of huge quantity of ammunition from them.
Verma had to resign as the minister of Social Welfare from the Bihar government in the wake of the Muzzafarpur shelter home sexual abuse case.
The bench also made it clear that the CBI team investigating the case should not be changed and posted the matter for hearing on October 30.
The apex court had on September 18 stayed a Patna High Court order to set up a fresh CBI team to probe the case, saying such a move would not only be detrimental to the ongoing investigation but also to victims.
It had said that there was no reason now to change the existing investigating team, which was set up by the CBI Director, and directed the investigation to continue under the same team which was set up on July 30.
Earlier, the bench had said that the investigation seems to be going in the right direction and had also asked the Income Tax Department to look into assets of the NGO which was running the shelter home and its owner Thakur.
The apex court had also noted that no allegations were made against the team probing the case with regard to the manner in which the investigation was being conducted.
Over 30 girls were allegedly raped at the shelter home.The alleged sexual exploitation of the girls was first highlighted in an audit report submitted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) to the state's social welfare department.
In all, the sexual abuse of 34 of the 42 inmates was confirmed in their medical examination. The TISS audit report had said that many girls at the shelter home had complained of sexual abuse.
An FIR was lodged against 11 people, including Thakur, on May 31. The probe was later taken over by the CBI.
A special investigation team was formed to probe the complaints. The NGO running the shelter home in Muzaffarpur was blacklisted and the girls were shifted to shelter homes in Patna and Madhubani. Women staff members of the shelter home and Thakur were among those who were arrested by the police in connection with the case.
The apex court had earlier taken cognizance of the matter after it received a letter from one Ranvijay Kumar, who had expressed concern that the alleged victims were subjected to media interviews.
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Are unresolved questions of Partition reflected in Pahalgam tragedy, asks Mani Shankar Aiyar
New Delhi, Apr 27 (PTI): Veteran Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar on Saturday wondered whether the Pahalgam tragedy was a result of unresolved questions of the Partition.
Addressing a book release function here, the former Union minister said the question that was posed to the country then and faced it today was whether Muslims in India felt accepted, cherished and celebrated.
"Many people almost prevented Partition, but it happened because there were differences in value systems and assessments of the nature of India's nationhood and its civilisational inheritance between people like Gandhi, Pandit Nehru, Jinnah and many other Muslims who did not agree with Mr Jinnah.
"But the fact is that the Partition happened and till today we are living with the consequences of that Partition. Is this how we should be living? Is that the unresolved questions of the Partition reflected in the terrible tragedy... in Pahalgam on April 22," he said.
Twenty-six people, mostly tourists, were gunned down by terrorists at Baisaran meadow in south Kashmir's Pahalgam on Tuesday.
Aiyar said Pakistan's dream of being the protector of Muslims in the subcontinent ended after the 1971 war, when Bangladesh became a separate country.
There was the partition of 1971, when more than half of Pakistan's population and a very important part of its territory deliberately moved away from it on the ground that it was not enough to be Muslim and it was also necessary to be Bengali, the Congress leader said.
"And it was the failure to understand that every salvation has more than one dimension to this identity that was responsible for what happened to Pakistan in 1971. Its dream of being the homeland of Muslims of India and being regarded as the protector of the Muslim community all over the subcontinent was finished forever," he said.
Reflecting on the pre-Partition period, Aiyar said the real question that was posed to India at that time and which continues to haunt it today is what is to be done with what were then about 100 million Muslims and 200 million Muslims now.
He further said, "Do we accept Jinnah's view and say 'no, they are a separate nation living amongst us as saboteurs or potential saboteurs', or do we look at them and say 'they are part and parcel of us'? Do we define ourselves as a composite or do we say 'no, we have only one dimension in our identity and that is the religious dimension of Hinduism'?"
"But in today's India, does a Muslim feel that he is accepted? Does a Muslim feel that he is cherished? Does a Muslim feel that he is celebrated? Why should I answer my own questions? Ask any Muslim and you will get the answers," he added.
