3 held in Muzaffarpur shelter home survivor’s gang rape

Patna, Sep 17 (IANS) Three of the four accused in the gang rape of an 18-year-old girl, a former inmate of the Muzaffarpur shelter home, have been arrested in Bihar's West Champaran district, police said on Tuesday.

Town police station in-charge Sashibhushan Thakur said that the three accused were arrested by police late Monday night and raids were being conducted to arrest the fourth accused in the case.

The victim, who had alleged mental abuse at the infamous Muzaffarpur shelter home, was gang raped by four people in a moving car in Bettiah last week.

Thakur said a case was registered based on the rape survivor's statement against the four accused. The victim told police that last Friday evening four men abducted her from near her residence, gang raped her in a moving vehicle and then escaped leaving her outside her home.

Last week, the Supreme Court ordered eight survivors in the Muzaffarpur shelter home case to be sent back to their families.

The apex court order came on the report of the Tata Institute for Social Sciences' (TISS) field action project "Koshish", which suggested sending the girls back to their families.

A total of 44 girls were victims in the shelter home abuse case, which is currently being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The trial of the 21 accused, chargesheeted by the CBI for sexual abuse of the inmates, is currently on in a Delhi court.

The Muzaffarpur horror came to light in May 2018 when the Bihar Social Welfare Department filed an FIR based on a TISS social audit.

Brajesh Thakur, a journalist-turned-social activist, who ran the shelter home was later arrested. He has since been shifted to the high-security Patiala jail following a Supreme Court order, while the other accused, including his close aides and some government officials, are lodged in jails in Patna and Muzaffarpur.