A Delhi court Monday convicted Brajesh Thakur and 18 others for sexual and physical assault on several girls in a Muzaffarpur shelter home.
Additional Sessions Judge Saurabh Kulshreshtha convicted Thakur for aggravated sexual assault under POCSO Act and gang rape.
The court acquitted one of the accused in the case.
The shelter home was run by Thakur, former MLA of Bihar People's Party (BPP). The prime accused in the case, he was charged under provisions of the POCSO Act, including Section 6 (aggravated sexual assault).
The accused included employees of his shelter home and Bihar department of social welfare officials. The matter had come to light following a report by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.
Several girls were allegedly raped and sexually abused at an NGO-run shelter home in Muzaffarpur, Bihar. The issue had come to light following a report by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).
The TISS report was given to the Bihar government on May 26, 2018, highlighting the alleged sexual abuses of minor girls in the shelter home for the first time.
The accused included 12 men and eight women. The court on March 20, 2018 had framed charges against the accused for offences of criminal conspiracy to commit rape and penetrative sexual assault against minors.
Earlier, the court had deferred the order by a month till January 14 as Judge Saurabh Kulshrestha, who had conducted the trial, was on leave.
Prior to that, in November, it had deferred the verdict by a month as the 20 accused could not be brought to court premises due to a lawyers' strike in all six district courts in the national capital.
On May 29, 2018, the state government shifted the girls from the shelter home to other protection homes. An FIR was lodged against the 11 accused in the case on May 31, 2018.
The top court on August 2 had taken cognisance of the alleged sexual assaults of about 30 minor girls in Muzaffarpur's shelter home and transferred the probe to the CBI on November 28.
(With inputs from agencies)
