NEW DELHI, OCT 31 :
Bench’s poser to State in a case of ammunition recovery from Manju Verma’s residence
The Supreme Court on Tuesday pulled up the Bihar government for delay in the arrest of former Minister Manju Verma (pic), who resigned after the Muzaffurpur shelter home case surfaced, in a case of recovery of ammunition from her residence. Her husband surrendered on Monday in the same case.
A Bench of Justices M.B. Lokur, S. Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta further directed that Brajesh Thakur, prime accused in the Muzaffarpur shelter home sexual abuse case, be shifted to the Patiala high security jail in Punjab from Bihar’s Bhagalpur jail.
The CBI had earlier reported that Thakur had access to a mobile phone in jail and was in constant touch with the outside world. A CBI report filed in the Supreme Court described him as an influential person.
The agency said Thakur was known as a “very influential person and people in the neighbourhood are scared of him.” It said Thakur’s neighbours had often heard the screams of girls from inside the shelter home, but were too frightened of him to report it to the police.
The court has ordered an Income Tax investigation into the assets of Thakur. The court’s primary focus was on the ? 4.5 crore Thakur received from the Bihar government for the past 10 years to finance the “activities” of his NGO, Sewa Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti, which ran the shelter home. The Bench had directed the CBI to look into the “antecedents, connections and influence” of Thakur and the NGO.
