PATNA: A police team probing the disappearance of 11 women from a government-funded shelter home run by sex scandal mastermind Brajesh Thakur’s NGO in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur on Wednesday recovered dozens of liquor bottles and condoms on its premises.
The locked rooms of Swadhar Grih, the shelter home for women separated from their families, were opened by police in presence of a magistrate. A team of forensic experts also accompanied the team and collected samples from all parts of the shelter home located in Chhoti Kalyani area of Muzaffarpur.
“A number of registers containing various details about the shelter home were recovered along with several objectionable items. We will examine the contents of the registers and other evidence collected during this visit,” said Muzaffarpur DSP (Town) Mukul Kumar Ranjan to The New Indian Express.
Sources said the police team, which included women police station SHO Jyoti Kumari and investigation officer of the case, Kalawati Kumari, forced open the locks and found many empty liquor bottles and condoms inside.
An FIR was lodged at the women’s police station about the disappearance of 11 of the women residing at Swadhar Grih on Monday. Sources said 27 women were residing at this shelter home and that 16 of them had been shifted to a short stay home at Begusarai in June.
According to district welfare unit assistant director Devesh Kumar Sharma, the shelter home authorities had not provided any information to the social welfare department about the disappearance of the 11 women.
Swadhar Grih is run by Seva Sankalp evam Vikas Samiti (SSVS) with funds from the central government with the aim of providing vocational training to helpless women. SSVS owner Brajesh Thakur was arrested on June 2 in the case related to the physical and sexual exploitation of the minor girls residing at Balika Grih, another shelter home the NGO runs. SSVS, which used to run five shelter homes, was blacklisted by the state government last month.
Meanwhile, Bihar Governor Satya Pal Malik on Wednesday wrote to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Chief Justice of Patna High Court, Rajendra Menon, regarding the trauma of the inmates in the state-funded shelter homes in Bihar.
Terming the sexual exploitation of the minor girls at Balika Grih as “heart-rending,” Malik urged Nitish Kumar to conduct an intensive probe conducted into reports of mismanagement at short stay homes and put in place a mechanism for their constant monitoring. Describing the CM as an “efficient administrator” and a popular leader, Malik also asked him to implement the recommendations of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, at all shelter homes.