Shameful and inhuman, says Supreme Court on Bihar govt’s handling of shelter home cases

Source- indiatoday.in

furious Supreme Court today expresses extreme unhappiness with the First Information Reports registered by the Bihar government in a number of cases of sexual and mental exploitation of children at shelter homes in the state.

A bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur faulted the Bihar government for filing “soft” FIRs in the cases, which deal with the sexual, mental and physical exploitation of boys and girls lodged in lodged in nine shelter homes in the state.

The court called the state government’s behaviour “shameful” and “inhuman” for not invoking more stringent sections of the Indian law when local police filed FIRs in the matter. Specifically, the court asked why Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code was not invoked in the FIRs.

The FIRs were registered after a report by the Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences (Tiss) revealed how boys and girls at shelter homes in Bihar were sexually exploited.

One among these shelter homes received particular attention: A shelter home in Muzaffarpur that was owned by Brajesh Thakur. The Tiss report highlighted that girls at that shelter home were regularly raped, beaten and terrorised.

Today, a petition brought to the Supreme Court’s notice that the FIRs registered by the Bihar Police were “soft” as they did not invoke stringent sections such as Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code.

“They have registered offence under minor charges,” the petitioner told the court. This irked Justice Madan B Lokur, who is heading a three-judge bench hearing the Muzaffarpur shelter home case.

“What are you doing?” Justice Lokur asked Bihar government. “It’s very shameful. If a child is being sodomised and you say it’s nothing. How can you do this? It’s inhuman.”

The Supreme Court also asked the Bihar government why appropriate action was not taken when the Tiss report was handed to the state government in May.

The court said that it may hand over the investigation of the shelter home cases to the Central Bureau of Investigation. The CBI is currently investigating only the Muzaffarpur shelter home case.

Supreme Court will next hear the matter tomorrow.