Muzaffarpur Rapes: Bihar Min Quits Over Husband’s Alleged Links

Muzaffarpur Rape Case: Bihar’s Minister of Social Welfare, Manju Verma tenders resignation to CM Nitish Kumar.

RJD, Congress and Communist Party of India legislators stage a protest against the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case, during the ongoing Monsoon Session, outside Bihar Assembly in Patna on 26 July. 

(Photo: PTI)

After a woman threw ink at Brajesh Thakur, the main accused in Muzaffarpur shelter home fiasco on Wednesday, 8 August, cases have been registered against 100 unidentified persons for hindering government work, reported ANI.

The Supreme Court, on Tuesday, 7 August, rapped the Bihar government over the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case for not checking the credentials of the NGO before releasing funds.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence on the alleged rape cases that has surfaced from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. “What is happening against women during his tenure, had not happened in the previous 3,000 years in India,” Gandhi said.

Here are the key developments:

• Education Minister of Bihar, Krishna Nandan Prasad Verma, got an additional charge of the Welfare Department after Manju Verma's resignation.
• Cases have been registered against 100 unidentified persons for hindering government work.
• Bihar Minister of Social Welfare Manju Verma on Wednesday, 8 August, handed her resignation to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, over her husband’s alleged links to the prime accused in the Muzaffarpur shelter home case. Speaking to ANI she said, “I resigned because media and opposition had created a furore, but I have full faith in CBI and judiciary. I am sure truth will be out, and my husband will come out clean.”
• What appears to have precipitated her quitting is the media reports that examination of mobile phone details of key accused Brajesh Thakur showed that he had spoken to her husband 17 times from January to June this year, PTI reported.
• Police raid old age home run by Brajesh Thakur in Samastipur. Thakur is the main accused in Muzaffarpur Shelter Home case.
• Smriti Irani slammed Rahul Gandhi for his comments on Modi and RSS. ‘To disrespect women just because they are associated with BJP or RSS shows the level to which Rahul Gandhi will fall’, she said. Rahul Gandhi had earlier today called the RSS a ‘male chauvinist organisation.’
• Next date of hearing in Muzaffarpur Shelter Home case in Supreme Court is 14 August.
• Inspector Vinod Kumar Singh suspended for negligence of duty.
• Supreme Court has asked the Bihar government to arrest the wife of one of the accused in the Muzaffarpur Shelter Home case for allegedly disclosing the names of certain minor victims by posting their identities and names on her Facebook account.
• Police has found one woman who was among the 11 women who went missing from another shelter home of Brajesh Thakur in Muzaffarpur.
• Rahul Gandhi questioned the silence of PM Modi on atrocities against women in the backdrop of rapes of girls in shelter homes in Muzaffarpur in Bihar and in Uttar Pradesh.
• The SC, slamming the Bihar government, asked “who has been giving funds to the shelter home?”
• Home Minister Rajnath Singh brought up the issue in the Lok Sabha.
• Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar, on 6 August, said that if Social Welfare Minister Manju Verma is found to be involved or if anything is found against her in connection with the Muzaffarpur shelter home sex scandal, she may be “asked to go”. Verma is in the eye of the storm after her husband’s name cropped up in connection with the abuse case.
• Kumar also directed all district magistrates to inspect child and women’s shelter homes running in Bihar.
• However, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi asserted that there was no need for Manju Verma or any other minister’s resignation "just because some people are giving statements".
• Lok Sabha proceedings on Monday, 6 August, were briefly adjourned after the Congress and other Opposition parties created a ruckus.
• Earlier in the day, the Patna High Court decided to monitor investigation into the rapes.
• Over the weekend, the Bihar Social Welfare Department suspended 14 officials on account of their "negligence and dereliction of duty". The suspended officials included seven assistant directors of Child Protection Units, six district child protection officers and the superintendent of a remand home for juvenile prisoners.
• All suspended officials have been charged with "failure to take adequate legal action" with regard to "assault, indecent behaviour and other undesirable activities" at shelter homes within their respective areas of jurisdiction.
• On 5 August, senior BJP leader and former Union Minister CP Thakur demanded the resignation of Bihar Social Welfare Minister Manju Verna in connection with the case.

Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh also brought up the issue in Lok Sabha and said an advisory should be sent to all states to prevent such incidents in the future.

What is the Case About?

A report by Mumbai-based social science institute, TISS, had pointed out sexual abuse of inmates at the Muzaffarpur shelter home which led to an FIR, followed by arrests of 10 people.

Medical examination of 34 out of the 42 shelter home inmates confirmed that they were sexually exploited. The owner of the shelter home, run by NGO 'Seva Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti', Brajesh Thakur, is the main accused in the case.

The TISS report has also reportedly pointed out ill-treatment of inmates at other such shelter homes for girls or boys in various districts and the Opposition has been criticising the government for lack of action in this regard.