Muzaffarpur shelter home vacated to demolish building

The shelter home in Muzaffarpur, which was embroiled in a sex scandal, was vacated by the Muzaffarpur Municipal Corporation (MMC) on Tuesday, December 13, ahead of its demolition, an MMC official said.

There is no specific information about the demolition date of the shelter home building which was found to have been constructed in violation of the map design passed by MMC, he said.

The civic body ordered the demolition of the building on November 12.

The scandal at the shelter home called 'Balika Grih', run by Brajesh Thakur's NGO 'Seva Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti', came to light earlier this year in a social audit by the Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences, which said that over 30 girls living in it were sexually abused.

An MMC official issuing the demolition order said the violation of the map design passed for constructing the shelter home building has been detected.

"We (corporation) got the Muzaffarpur shelter home vacated to demolish its building. A seizure list of articles belonging to the shelter home was prepared under the supervision of the magistrate. The videography of the entire building has also been carried out," MMC city manager Om Prakash told reporters.

Asked when the building would be demolished, Om Prakash said, "We don't have any specific information as to when the building will be demolished. We have been assigned to get the building vacated besides preparing the seizure list and getting the videography done." MMC Commissioner Sanjay Dubey had said that the civic body would start demolishing the building soon after preparing the seizure list and completing the videography of entire building.

After the shelter home scandal came to light, Brajesh Thakur, who is the prime accused, and others were booked on May 30, 2018. The state government later handed over the probe to the CBI.

Bihar Social Welfare Minister Manju Verma had resigned following the Muzaffarpur case, when it came to light that her husband, Chandrashekhar Verma, had spoken to Thakur several times between January and June.

Manju Verma and her husband surrendered before a lower court in Begusarai in an Arms Act case lodged in the course of the probe into the shelter home scandal.

The Arms Act case was lodged following a recovery of a huge quantity of ammunition from her residence during a CBI raid.