Bodies of drowned teenagers found

Muzaffarpur, Jan 8: There is no evidence of murder of children in Bihar's Muzaffarpur shelter home, the CBI on Wednesday told the Supreme Court.

The probe agency told the apex court that two skeletons were recovered from the home's premises which were later, in forensic investigation, found to be of a woman and a man.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde accepted the status report of the CBI and allowed two officers to be relieved from the investigation team.

Attorney General K K Venugopal, appearing for the probe agency, said investigation was done on allegations of rape and sexual assault of children and charge sheets have been filed before the courts concerned.

Venugopal said the children, who were alleged to have been murdered, were later traced and found to be alive.

He said the CBI has investigated cases of 17 shelter homes in Bihar and charge sheets have been filed in 13 of them, while in four cases the preliminary inquiry was conducted and later closed as no evidence of any wrongdoing was found.

The probe agency, in its status report filed on Monday, said no incriminating evidence proving commission of any criminal offence could be gathered in four preliminary enquiries and as such no FIR has been registered.

The CBI had also said the Bihar government has been requested to take departmental action and action of cancellation of registration and blacklisting of concerned NGOs by providing them the result of investigation, i.e., the CBI report.

Several girls were allegedly sexually and physically assaulted at a shelter home run by an NGO in Bihar's Muzaffarpur. The issue had come to light following a report by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).

Following the report, a petition was filed in the apex court seeking lodging of an FIR and court-monitored probe by an independent agency into the allegations.

The plea filed by journalist Nivedita Jha through advocate Fauzia Shakil has sought "registration of FIR and independent investigations or court monitored probe into the affairs of these 14 (other) shelter homes in Bihar mentioned in the TISS report".

The apex court had directed the CBI to probe the offences under the Information Technology Act regarding the video recordings of the alleged assault on girls at the shelter home.

It had also directed the agency to investigate the role of "outsiders who were involved and facilitated the sexual assaults on the inmates", after administering them intoxicants and also against those who allegedly indulged in trafficking of girls from the shelter home.

The apex court had earlier directed the CBI to complete its probe into the alleged murder of 11 girls at the shelter home and asked it to file a status report.

The SC had transferred the case from Bihar to a Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court in Saket District Court complex in Delhi.

Earlier, the top court had directed the CBI to conduct a probe into allegations of physical and sexual abuse of inmates in 16 other shelter homes in Bihar which were flagged in the TISS report.

Pratapgarh, Jun 2: In a shocking incident, a young man was tied to a tree and set afire by the family of a woman with whom he was allegedly having an affair in Pratapgarh district of Uttar Pradesh late on Monday night.

The man, 25, was a resident of Bhujauni village under Fatanpur police station, and he died on the spot.

Enraged over the incident, his family members and local people turned violent and set two police vehicles on fire.

Additional forces were rushed in to control the situation that remains tense.

The body has been sent for post-mortem.

According to Superintendent of Police (SP), Pratapgarh, Abhishek Singh, "Some people barged into the house of Ambika Patel and dragged him away. They then tied Patel to a tree some distance away and set him on fire after sprinkling petrol on him. They fled immediately after." Agitated family members and villagers assembled at the site and set a 112 police response vehicle (PRV) and another police jeep on fire. They were demanding immediate arrest and action against the accused.

The official said that Patel's relatives claimed that he was having an affair with a woman from his village and this had resulted in many face-offs between the families.

Patel had reportedly shared a video clip of the woman on social media a few months ago further increasing tension between the families.

The woman's family members had registered a police complaint against Patel in this connection at the Fatanpur police station that led to his arrest. He was released from jail recently, police added.

The woman had been recently selected as a police constable and was posted to Kanpur.

The SP said that an FIR had been registered on the complaint of the victim's family and efforts were on to arrest the accused.

Tikamgarh, Jul 25: Promise of providing housing to the poor has been made by both Centre as well as State governments but a Dalit family in Tikamgarh district of Madhya Pradesh is forced to live in a toilet for the last several years.

However, the administration denied that the family is living in the toilet.

Maganlal Ahirwar, his wife and four children live in Keshavgarh Gram Panchayat of Mohangarh area of Tikamgarh district. All of them have been living in the toilet for four years. Ahirwar's wife Phula Devi said she told the authorities several times that her family didn't get house under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, but no one listened. The couple even got their daughter married in the same toilet.

They even got an electricity connection and gas connection under the Ujjwala scheme.

Mohangarh tehsildar Dr. Abhijeet Singh told media persons, "I got to know about the case and have asked for the report. Maganlal Ahirwar came to the office two-three days ago and denied that he was living in the toilet with his family. He has an ancestral house in the village."

He might have lived in a toilet earlier but currently he is not living there, Dr. Singh added.