Shelter home sexual assault: SC seeks Bihar's action taken

New Delhi: The Supreme Court ordered the Bihar administration to submit the action taken report on the Muzaffarpur shelter home sexual assault case on Wednesday. The petitioner's counsel in the case told the court that the CBI had recommended action against certain officers, but it is not clear that any action has been taken yet, IANS reported.

The court asked the government to submit the report in two weeks.

The SC, bench headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, was hearing a petition filed by a Bihar-based journalist Nivedita Jha who challenged the blanket ban imposed by the Patna High Court on media coverage of the Muzaffarpur shelter home case.

The bench, also consisting of Justice Krishna Murari, observed that the investigation had been finished, and some have been convicted in the case. Meanwhile, the Bihar government submitted that conviction was passed in one matter, and an appeal is now pending before Delhi High Court. The council for the government said that action had been taken against concerned officers.

Representing CBI, Additional Solicitor General (ASC) Madhavi Divan told the court that the investigation was complete and certain officers repatriated to parent cadre after the court's permission. ASC added that the trial on the main case had taken place.

A report filed by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences bought the issue of several girls being raped and sexually abused at an NGO-run shelter home in Muzaffarpur to the limelight. The CBI had probed the matter while SC directed the agency to investigate the allegations of unnatural sexual assaults in the case.