PATNA: Breaking his silence on the incident of rape of 34 minor girls at the Muzaffarpur-based state-funded shelter home, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar on Friday said he was ashamed of the incident and gripped with a sense of remorse.

Speaking at a government function organised to launch Mukhyamantri Kanya Utthan Yojana’, a scheme meant for upliftment of daughters, at Adhiveshan Bhawan here, Nitish said, “A very shameful incident has happened in Muzaffarpur . We all are ‘Sharmashar’ (ashamed) of the incident.”

CM also said he wanted to assure people of Bihar that all the people who would be found guilty in this case would be severely punished and no leniency would be shown towards them. “I will ensure that no guilty person is spared,” he said.

Nitish further said deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi has said on the floor of the assembly that we would ourselves like the CBI probe to be monitored by the high court,” Kumar said.

Terming the shelter home incident as “an act of sin”, CM said he had, a few days back, convened a meeting of state’s chief secretary, DGP and other senior official on Muzaffarpur episode and asked the officers to find out if there was any serious flaw in the existing system. “How such people (like Brajesh Thakur) succeeded in entering in the system? I am deeply pained over the incident. It is very disgusting,” Nitish said.

He asked the chief secretary Deepak Kumar (sitting on the dais) to develop an institutional mechanism to prevent recurrence of such shameful incident. CM also asked the officers to develop a transparent mechanism which could enable common people to inform officers if they have any information about such misdeeds. “I too have asked the advocate general to make a request for monitoring of the case by the high court, so that no guilty person get chance to go unpunished,” he said.

Highlighting the works done for the welfare of women, CM further asserted that till date he was in the government, the rule of law would prevail in the state.

