Judgment in shelter home case likely today

New Delhi, January 13

A Delhi court is likely to pronounce on Tuesday its judgment in the case of alleged sexual and physical assault of several girls at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur, which was run by former Bihar People's Party (BPP) MLA Brajesh Thakur.

The court had earlier deferred the order by a month till January 14 as Judge Saurabh Kulshrestha, who had conducted the trial, was on leave.

Prior to that, in November, it had deferred the verdict by a month as 20 accused, who are currently lodged in Tihar central jail, could not be brought to court premises due to the lawyers' strike in all six district courts in the national capital.

The court on March 20, 2018 had framed charges against the accused, including Thakur, for offences of criminal conspiracy to commit rape and penetrative sexual assault against minors.

The accused included eight females and 12 males.

The court had held trial for the offences of rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, drugging of minors and criminal intimidation among other charges.

Key accused Thakur and employees of his shelter home as well as officials in the Bihar department of social welfare were charged with criminal conspiracy, neglect of duty and failure to report assault on the girls.

The charges also included offence of cruelty to child under their authority, punishable under the Juvenile Justice Act. — PTI