The Supreme Court was hearing the Muzaffarpur shelter home rapes and termed it to be "horrific". It pulled up the state government for funding an institution without verifying its credentials. (Photo: Reuters file)

Slamming the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar for its failure to prevent sexual assault on minor girls at a Muzaffarpur shelter home run by an NGO, the Supreme Court has expressed serious concern about women's safety, saying "nobody is bothered".

Justice Madan B Lokur said, "What is going on in our country? Girls and women are getting raped left, right and centre. As per NCRB figures, in the year 2016 astonishing number of 38,947 rapes were committed - which means 106 rapes a dayevery six hours somebody is raped. Look, somebody has to wake up these incidents must stop."

The court termed the Muzaffarpur incident "horrific" and pulled up the state government for funding an institution without verifying its credentials.

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On August 2, the court had taken suo motu cognisance of the incident at the shelter home and issued notices to the Bihar government and the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development.

"Were the credentials of this NGO which runs the shelter home been verified? If you are doling out funds to NGOs without verifying their credentials, it almost amounts to state involvement."

"It will appear that all their wrongdoings are state-sponsored. The state will have to take the responsibility for the rapes", the bench said.

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The court also said that minor victims of such crimes should not be interviewed, except by state child rights bodies, as it would have serious impact on their mental well-being, and also asked the print, electronic and social media not to publish or display photos of victims of sexual abuses, even in a blurred or morphed form, in any case across the country.

During the hearing on Tuesday, the bench also referred to reports about alleged sexual exploitation of girls at a shelter home in Deoria in Uttar Pradesh and girls being sold in Madhya Pradesh.

It observed that as per the NCRB statistics, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh were the top two states as far as cases of rapes were concerned.

"This is a matter of great concern", the court said.

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