PATNA: The four-storey building in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur, where 34 minor girls lodged in an NGO’s care were subjected to repeated horrific sexual abuse for months, was fully evacuated on Wednesday as the local civic body plans to demolish its illegally constructed parts on Thursday.
Officials of Muzaffarpur Municipal Corporation (MMC) evacuated the building, which housed the shelter home and the office of the blacklisted NGO Seva Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti (SSVS), in presence of two magistrates and policemen amid protests from family members of the owners. The evacuation process was videographed and a detailed seizure list was prepared, said officials.
The Supreme Court, which is monitoring the ongoing CBI probe into the Muzaffarpur shelter home sexual abuses case, had given the go-ahead for demolition of the three illegally built floors of the building earlier this month. The family of the building’s jailed owner and scandal mastermind Brajesh Thakur had moved the apex court against MMC’s demolition order, but got no relief.
“The evacuation process, carried in due compliance of rules, is over. The demolition of the building will start on Thursday. Considering the lack of space around the building, which is in a densely populated area, large machinery cannot be used and so the demolition would be conducted manually,” said Muzaffarpur municipal commissioner Sanjay Dubey.
Furniture and other material removed from the building were transported to the premises of Muzaffarpur Regional Development Authority (MRDA). CBI, which had sealed the building after gathering evidence related to the scandal inside it, had handed over the keys of all the rooms to MMC last week.
Nicknamed “horror house” after the sexual abuse of the minor girls lodged at this shelter home came to light in May, the building was built in disregard of the civic bylaws, said officials. Its three upper floors were built without MMC’s permission, they added.
The sexual abuses, which came out in a social audit of shelter homes in Bihar conducted by Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), led to the resignation of Bihar’s then social welfare minister Manju Verma in August. She and her husband, a former MLC of Bihar’s ruling JD(U), are currently in jail in a case related to the recovery of illegal ammunition from their house during a CBI raid conducted in connection with the scandal.
SSVS owner Brajesh Thakur, who was politically well connected, was shifted to a jail in Patiala from a Bihar jail last month after he allegedly tried to influence witnesses and erase evidence.