The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the CBI to take over the probe into allegations of physical and sexual abuse of inmates at 16 shelter homes in Bihar.
A bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur transferred the investigation being conducted by Bihar Police to the CBI and dismissed the state government’s request not to do so.
The apex court said that the report of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) raises grave concern about 17 shelter homes in Bihar and the CBI must look into all of them. Of these, the Muzaffarpur case is already being looked into by the CBI.
CBI told the bench, also comprising justices S A Nazeer and Deepak Gupta, that in principle it was ready to take over the investigation.
The agency is already investigating the Muzaffarpur shelter home case in which it is expected to file a charge sheet by December 7, the court was told.
The apex court also said that CBI officers probing the shelter home cases in Bihar will not be transferred without its prior permission.
The top court had yesterday termed as “very shameful” and “inhuman” the conduct of Bihar government is not taking appropriate action following the allegations of physical and sexual abuse of children at several shelter homes and had favoured a CBI investigation in these matters.
The court had said that the state was “very soft” and “very selective” in registering FIRs against the perpetrators and had asked the Bihar government whether these children were not the citizens of this country.
In the Muzaffarpur shelter home case, an FIR was lodged on May 31 against 11 people following the TISS report.
The probe was later taken over by the CBI and so far, 17 people have been arrested.
