Express News Service
PATNA: A day-long bandh called by the Left parties and supported by all Opposition parties in Bihar in protest against the sexual abuse of minor girls at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur hit normal life in many districts as rain and road traffic was disrupted by the bandh supporters.
Workers of the Opposition RJD, Congress, NCP and HAM came out on the streets in towns across Bihar along with the supporters of the Left parties such as CPI(Marxist-Leninist), CPI, CPI(M), SUCI, Forward Block and RSP.
ALSO READ: Liquor bottles, condoms found inside Bihar shelter home run by sex scandal mastermind Brajesh Thakur's NGO
CPI(ML) and RJD workers staged a demonstration outside the house of the arrested mastermind of the sexual abuse case, Brajesh Thakur, in Muzaffarpur. In Patna, hundreds of workers of the Opposition parties staged a similar demonstration outside the residence of social welfare minister Manju Verma, demanding her removal from the cabinet and the arrest of her husband for allegedly frequenting the state-funded shelter home run by Thakur’s NGO.
Rail traffic was disrupted for hours at several towns as the bandh supporters sat on the tracks and blocked the movement of trains. They were removed from the tracks by GRP personnel. Road traffic was severely hampered on the national and state highways as the bandh supporters blocked the roads and caused massive jams throughout the day.
ALSO READ: Bihar shelter home rape: Press Information Bureau cancels accreditation of main accused
In Patna, women activists of the Left parties clashed with police and the bandh supporters forced shops in many localities to down shutters. Most schools in the city remained closed for the day. Nearly 900 bandh supporters were detained across the state, said an official.
Tejashwi Yadav, leader of the Opposition in Assembly, attacked CM Nitish Kumar over his silence in the alleged sexual abuse of 34 minor girls at the shelter home. Dubbing the scandal as a “horrendous institutional rape case,” the RJD leader said he would compel Kumar to break his silence.
READ HERE: Eleven women go missing from another shelter home in Bihar run by sex scandal mastermind Brajesh Thakur's NGO
Meanwhile, while hearing a petition for Brajesh Thakur’s regular bail, Patna High Court on Thursday asked Muzaffarpur police to submit the case diary in the shelter home sex scandal case. Thakur’s bail petition was earlier rejected by the POCSO court in Muzaffarpur. He is one of the ten people arrested in the case before CBI took it over on July 29.
READ STORY HERE: New medical reports confirm five more rapes at Bihar shelter home
CBI officials on Thursday visited the office of the social welfare department in Patna and collected files pertaining to agreements between the department and Thakur’s NGO, Seva Sankalp evam Vikas Samiti (SSVS).
In another development, the state health department on Thursday cancelled all agreements signed between SSVS and the State AIDS Control Society.
