By Arun Srivastava
The Supreme Court ordering
transfer of the Muzaffarpur shelter home trial to Delhi is a slap on the face
of the Nitish government which claims to ensure justice to its people. In
shifting the case at Saket in Delhi, the apex court has demonstrated its lack
of confidence in the Bihar government. The disgust of the court could be gauged
from the observation “Enough is enough’, give us details of 110 shelter homes
in the state. How many inmates are there? How the state giving assistance and
what is is the number of male and female inmates”. The Supreme Court rebuked Nitish government
and transferred the Muzaffarpur case trial to Delhi.
The Nitish government is not
penitent and felt remorse of the crime is also evident from its eulogy of the
police force. It is really shocking how could a government adore the officers who patronized such crime and
protected the politicians involved in the gruesome crime. No denying the fact that it provided enough
time to the perpetrator to trample the evidences by allowing Manju Verma the
wife of the prime accused to continue to be the minister for more than six
months of unraveling the plot. The chief minister, Nitis Kumar should have
removed her from the cabinet the day her husband was found guiltyand arrested
for being the prime perpetrator.
From the day the case of sexual exploitation
of children and women was exposed, the government used its might to circumvent
the probe to protect the culprits and criminals. Sensing this attitude of the
Nitish government even the Central Bureau of Investigation probing the
horrendous crime had argued that the trial would not be fair if it was held in
Muzaffarpur. The enormity of the crime could be understood from the simple fact
that two girls were killed by the operators. The CBI has expected that the
state police would fully cooperate its probe. But it has proved to be
utopia.
In the initial stage the case
was investigated by the state police but instead of unearthing the crime and
conspiracy, it has been more interested in giving the case a burial. The Bihar
police had come to know that girls and women were supplied to a number of
politicians. Since the Bihar police did
not do justice to the girls and women, the case was eventually handed over to
the CBI. The apex court was forced to
direct the CBI to probe the crime as allegation of such crime taking place in
other shelter homes in the state had started pouring in. The alleged abuse of
inmates at 17 shelter homes was revealed in a study of the Tata Institute of
Social Sciences (TISS). The Muzaffarpur home was among the worst: many girls
reported physical and sexual violence. More than 30 girls below 17 have been
sexually assaulted.
According to the FIR, the TISS
deals with 17 shelter homes in Bihar put under the category of ‘Grave
Concerns’. CBI found that only one member of the staff stood in support of the
children at the Bhagalpur home, for which he was targeted by the NGO’s
secretary. The director and other officials ran the shelter home in violation
of provisions of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
Since the report of TISS raised grave concern about 17 shelter homes in Bihar
the apex court 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 while dismissing the state government’s request to not transfer the
probe. The apex court also said CBI officers probing the shelter home cases in
Bihar shall not be transferred without its prior permission. But the nexus
between the criminals-politicians and police has been so strong that even the
CBI was made to transfer its officer supervising the probe. The key players involved in the scam made
former CBI chief Nageshwar Rao transfer the senior most investigating officer,
the joint Director, AK Sharma, without informing the apex court of his move.
THE apex court which has been
keeping a watch on the probe could made out the trick
Rao was playing. The SC had come down heavily on the CBI for violating its
orders and transferring Sharma. It found Rao guilty of committing contempt of
court. Realising that he has been caught pants down, Rao enacting the role of a
naiveté, offered an unconditional apology to the Supreme Court and confessed of
making a “mistake”. His involvement in the conspiracy was apparent as
he indulged the nefarious game even after being aware of the fact that he being
the director cannot dream of violating or circumventing the Supreme Court’s orders.
What was most disgusting and
unbecoming of the behaviour of such a senior police officer was that he put the
blame on his legal officer. He said “ I
admit that in view of the orders dated 31.10.2018 & 28.11.2018 passed by SC
earlier I ought not have agreed with the legal advice for relieving AK Sharma
even on his promotion without prior approval of the Supreme Court”. A
bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi took serious note of violation of
two earlier orders of the apex court and had issued contempt notice to Rao for
transferring Sharma to the CRPF on January 17 without taking prior permission
from the court.
Finally, the Supreme Court
punished him by imposing a time of Rs. One lakh and compelling him to sit at
the corner on the Courtroom as accused till the end of the Court hours during
the day. The CBI office has thus lost all the dignity associated with the
office. (IPA Service)
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