CBI registers four more FIRs in Muzaffarpur shelter home case

New Delhi, Jan 17 (IANS) The CBI has registered four more FIRs in the alleged abuse of children in four shelter homes across Bihar, an official said on Thursday

Among those, two shelter homes are in Munger and one each in Gaya and Bhagalpur. The Central Bureau of Investigation registered these FIRs on Wednesday.

According to the FIR, these shelter homes were being run in violation of provisions of Juvenile Justice Act 2015, besides being involved in financial irregularities.

On November 28 last year, the Supreme Court had asked the CBI to probe the alleged abuse of inmates at 17 shelter homes in Bihar listed in a study conducted by Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).

The maximum numbers of these shelter homes are for boys. The preliminary enquiry conducted by TISS revealed that the women staffers of these shelter homes asked the boys to send lewd messages to other women.

The TISS had claimed in its report that the boys in the shelter home were forced to work for the Superintendent whose residential quarters were in the same premises.

The CBI on Tuesday had also registered four FIRs against different shelter homes that included the Director of Samaj Samiti Boys' Children Home in Bhagalpur and DORD Children Home in Gaya for allegedly physically and mentally assaulting the inmates.

These actions are in addition to the CBI's ongoing probe into the case of sexual exploitation of minor girls at the Muzaffarpur shelter home in which the CBI had registers two separate FIRs.

The Muzaffarpur case caught national attention last year after the TISS study highlighted that out of the 42 girls lodged at the short-stay home run by an NGO, 34 were found to have been sexually assaulted. The shelter home was being run by Brajesh Thakur.

An FIR was lodged against 11 people, including Thakur, on May 31. The probe was later taken over by the CBI.