NEW DELHI: In a setback for the Nitish Kumar government, the Supreme Court on Wednesday put the CBI in charge of investigating all cases of child sexual abuse at 17 shelter homes in Bihar.
Rejecting the Bihar government’s request for more time to show progress in the investigation, a bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur said, “What are we supposed to do if the state does nothing? Just keep asking for status reports? Sorry.”
n Muzaffarpur, the CBI is already investigating allegations of sexual assault on several children. Wednesday’s order will enable it to probe 16 additional shelter homes, which were indicted in a social audit report by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.
The bench asked the CBI to take over the probe from the Bihar police and submit its first status report by January 31. It also said no CBI officer probing the shelter home cases shall be transferred without permission from the court.
The CBI’s lawyer was initially hesitant to take over the probe, saying the agency may not be able to proceed as another bench of the Supreme Court had restrained the interim CBI director from taking major policy decisions.
The bench told the lawyer to get instructions afresh since this probe had nothing to do with the restraining order. Five minutes later, the CBI lawyer said the agency was willing to take over the probe.
The CBI’s counsel also said they would file a chargesheet in the Muzaffarpur case by December 7.