The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday harshly criticised the Bihar government for the alleged rapes of minor girls in a Muzaffarpur shelter home run by an NGO, saying, "it seems that these activities are state sponsored" and adding that women are being raped "left, right and centre" in the country.
The SC bench comprising Justices M B Lokur, Deepak Gupta and K M Joseph expressed grave concern about what's happening to women in the country. It referred to National Crime Records Bureau data and said that every six hours, a woman is raped in India. The court said 38,947 women were raped in India in 2016.
AFP
"What is to be done? Girls and women are getting raped left, right and centre," the bench said.
The apex court asked the Bihar government to arrest wife of one of the accused in the Muzaffarpur shelter home incident for disclosing the names of alleged minor rape victims by posting their names on her Facebook account. The SC also asked why the credentials of the Muzaffarpur NGO running the shelter home weren't checked before it was given state funds.
"Who is giving money to the shelter home in the state?" the apex court asked.
ALSO READ:?After Muzaffarpur Shelter Home, Sexual Abuse Of Boys Comes To Light At Bihar Juvenile Home
A furious SC also slammed the Delhi Commission for Women for what it said is interference in the case, told the body that it is none of its business and refused to hear its plea.
Meanwhile, advocate Aparna Bhat, who was appointed as an amicus curiae in the matter, told the court that no compensation has been paid to the alleged victims of sexual assault at the Muzaffarpur shelter home.
The SC was also told that the Muzaffarpur-based NGO is not the only one which is facing allegation of rape incidents, as the social audit report of NGOs pointed out 15 similar state-funded institutions in Bihar were under scrutiny. The alleged sexual exploitation of the girls was first highlighted in an audit report submitted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai to the state's social welfare department in April. SC says that proper monitoring of NGO run shelter homes must be done on day to day basis and CCTV should be installed to prevent Muzaffarpur like incident.
PTI
Meanwhile, news agency ANI reported on Tuesday that police have found one woman who was among the 11 women who went missing from another shelter home run by the same people as in Muzaffarpur.
Under fire over the alleged rape of 34 girls at a government-funded shelter home, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Monday blamed a "system flaw" for the case and rejected demands for sacking his social welfare minister Manju Verma only on the basis of allegations by opposition leaders.
Kumar also announced his decision to phase out the practice of shelter homes being run by NGOs and said the state government would take over administration of all such centres over a period of time.
ALSO READ:?Secret Stairs, Sedatives And Medical Equipment Recovered From Muzaffarpur Shelter House
He said Verma can be asked "to go" only if she is found to have facilitated any wrongdoing and not because of "noises" being made -- a stance that found support from Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi.
Kumar also took potshots at his former party colleague Sharad Yadav and other opposition leaders for attending a protest in the national capital on the issue, saying it was amusing to see people having spoken unkindly of women holding candle lights at an event organised by a person facing corruption charges.
PTI
In the aftermath of the alleged sexual assault of minor girls in not just Muzaffarpur but also Uttar Pradesh's Deoria, women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi today asked states to build a single large central facility to house such children in a bid to prevent "abuse and misuse" by NGOs.
She said the adoption and skill development programmes in a central facility would be much easier and it would also help in checking "abuse and misuse" by NGOs who are running their own shelter homes with grants from the government.
"I have been asking for a scheme where each state should have a single large facility to house all such girls and children which should be run by the state government," she said.
ALSO READ:11 Women Missing From Another Shelter Home Run By Accused In Muzaffarpur NGO Rape Case