This story is from January 21, 2020

Brajesh Singh Thakur, the owner of the shelter.

NEW DELHI: A special court on Monday convicted NGO owner Brajesh Singh Thakur and 18 others, including nine women, of committing or abetting sexual assault on 44 minor girls at a shelter run by the former in Bihar ’s Muzaffarpur district . The court pronounced Thakur guilty of rape and gang-rape under the IPC and aggravated penetrative sexual assault under the Pocso Act.

Of the 20 accused in the case, the court of additional sessions judge Saurabh Kulshreshtha acquitted just one person.

The court fixed January 28 as the date for the sentencing.

Apart from Thakur, seven others — child protection officer Ravi Kumar Roshan, child welfare committee member Vikas Kumar , Dilip Verma, Vijay Kumar Tiwari, Guddu Patel, Kishan Kumar and Ramanuj Thakur — were convicted of aggravated penetrative sexual assault and rape.

The court held Dr Ashwini Kumar, Rama Shankar , Shaista Parveen, Indu Kumari, Meenu Devi, Manju Devi, Chanda Devi, Neha Kumari, Hema Masih and Kiran Kumari guilty of criminal conspiracy and abetment under the IPC and cruelty towards children under Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice Act.

Indu, Minu, Hema and Kiran were all employees of the shelter.

Rosy Rani, who was additional director of the child protection unit of the social welfare department, was convicted under Section 21(1) of the Pocso Act, which pertains to failure to report an offence. She was granted bail as the maximum punishment for the offence is six months in jail, which she has already completed.

Thakur and seven women office-bearers of his NGO, Seva Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti, had been arrested and remanded in jail custody on June 3, 2018, based on an FIR lodged with the Mahila police station in Muzaffarpur on May 31. Child protection officer Ravi Kumar Roshan and child welfare committee member Vikas Kumar were arrested later as the list of accused swelled.

After the state government ordered a CBI investigation on July 26, 2018, a separate FIR was lodged in the case. In December, the agency filed a chargesheet that named 21 accused.

In its chargesheet, the CBI said the accused were "duty-bound to ensure the welfare of the girl children" at the shelter, but they instead abused those whom they were supposed to protect and care for. The agency said the 44 survivors were administered sleep-inducing drugs on the pretext of giving them de-worming medication. When the girls became unconscious, the accused sexually assaulted them, it said.

On February 7 last year, the case was transferred from Bihar to the special court at Saket on the orders of the Supreme Court. The apex court pulled up the CBI for transferring the officer who had been probing the sexual assault case, saying this amounted to a violation of a previous order. "Enough is enough. Children cannot be treated like this. You cannot let your officers treat children this way. Spare the children," it said.

When the judgment was pronounced on Monday, many of the accused broke down. A few, including Roshan, pleaded with the court for mercy. Collapsing on a chair, Roshan said: "Hum chhoye bhi nahi hai…Hum suicide kar lenge (I didn’t even touch anyone…I will kill myself)."

During the trial, the prosecution examined 69 witnesses while the defence put up 20 witnesses.

