Bihar shelter home rape case accused ran sex racket

A police report states that the main accused in the sexual abuse case of over 40 girls in Muzaffarpur, Brajesh Thakur, ran a sex racket in Bihar under the guise of a journalist.

The man in the eye of the storm published a local Hindi daily ‘Pratah Kamal’, an English newspaper ‘News Next’ and an Urdu daily ‘Halaat-e-Bihar’ from Muzaffarpur. Besides running various shelter homes, old age homes and NGOs, Thakur reportedly used his woman colleague Madhu Kumari, who served as a correspondent of ‘Halaat-e-Bihar’, to “win favours” from the officials in Bihar.

Madhu, also an accused in the shelter home rape case, is absconding. The Bihar government has cancelled her accreditation and annulled her health insurance coverage after the police report said that she was the main conduit in Thakur’s racket.

Indicting Thakur, the police report, prepared shortly before the CBI took over the investigation, states, “He enjoyed huge clout by flaunting his status as journalist, which became evident when he was handed over the responsibility to run an old age home in Samastipur on the recommendations of government officers, despite not conforming to the provisions laid down in the advertisement.”

The police report indicts Madhu too. “Madhu was the main worker for Brajesh. She was earlier into prostitution. Thakur used her to good effect to reach out to the red light area at Chaturbhuj-Sthan in Muzaffarpur and made her points-person for an organisation – ‘Wama Shakti Vahini’,” says the report.

Madhu doubled up as project director of ‘Wama Shakti Vahini’, an organisation which was empanelled with the Bihar State Aids Control Society (BSACS). “The real work of these projects was to push minor and helpless girls into flesh trade, instead of the mandated job of bringing sex workers into the mainstream. It needs to be investigated and all the office-bearers should be arrested,” said the report prepared by a DSP-rank officer.

“In view of the adverse police report, the Bihar’s Health Department is all set to terminate the contract of Thakur’s NGO – Wama Shakti Vahini, headed by Madhu, who has been evading arrest,” the source, who is aware of the investigation, told DH on Tuesday.

Courtesy: Deccan Herald