Janjivan Bureau / New Delhi: A Delhi court on Monday convicted Brajesh Thakur and 18 others of sexual and physical assault on several girls in a Muzaffarpur shelter home.
Additional Sessions Judge Saurabh Kulshreshtha convicted Thakur of aggravated sexual assault under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and gangrape. The shelter home was run by Thakur, a former Bihar People’s Party (BPP) politician.
The court acquitted one of the accused, who included 12 men and eight women. It fixed January 28 for arguments on the quantum of sentence. The court had on March 30, 2019, framed charges against the accused, including Thakur, for offences of criminal conspiracy to commit rape and penetrative sexual assault on minors.
It had held trial for the offences of rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, drugging of minors, criminal intimidation among other charges. Thakur and employees of his shelter home as well as the Bihar State Department of Social Welfare officials were charged with criminal conspiracy, neglect of duty and failure to report assault on the girls. The Tata Institute of Social Sciences had submitted a report on the sexual abuse to the Bihar Government on May 26, 2018 .
