Nitish had links with kingpin: Tejashwi Yadav

Muzaffarpur: Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Wednesday inspected the Balika Grih here that is at the centre of the sexual exploitation in government shelter homes scandal that has rocked Bihar.

HAMS president and former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, Congress legislative party leader Sadanand Singh, senior RJD leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui and Left MLA Mehboob Alam accompanied Tejashwi.

Tejashwi reached the shelter home at 2pm, but it was locked as the administration has sealed it. He looked into the room adjacent to the shelter home.

The entire area was cordoned off by the district administration and police were deployed all along Sahu Road where the shelter home is located.

During their 15-minute visit, the Opposition leaders also checked the place inside the shelter home building premises that was dug up after an inmate of Balika Grih alleged that a girl had been murdered and buried there.

No dead body was found in the digging.

Addressing the media at the district guesthouse, Tejashwi and the other leaders accused chief minister Nitish Kumar of protecting Brajesh Thakur, the arrested proprietor of the Seva Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti, the NGO that ran the Balika Grih.

Tejashwi claimed that Thakur had made arrangements for and was present on the dais with Nitish when the chief minister had visited Muzaffarpur in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha election.

“Nitish ji is very close to Brajesh Thakur…. Thakur is also close to deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi who used to offer him sweets in his official chamber,” Tejashwi alleged. He questioned how police and social welfare department officials can ensure a fair investigation because they themselves are accused of allowing mismanagement in the functioning of the shelter home.

Tejashwi also questioned why the state was not handing over the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) despite Union home minister Rajnath Singh saying the Centre was ready for a CBI probe if the state recommends one. Tejashwi alleged that two senior BJP leaders including a Union minister had pressured the district administration to not to take any action against Thakur. He, however, did not name the BJP leaders.

Manjhi also said that only the CBI can probe the case properly, and alleged that the state is buying time to erase evidence so that people close to the government could be saved.

Sadanand also asked why the state was shying away from a CBI probe.

Thakur’s family members accused the media of being biased.

“The media people come here take our sound byte but they run only those portions which are spicy for them,” said a relative of Thakur.

Courtesy: The Telegraph