SC stays Patna HC order for fresh probe team in Muzaffarpur case

Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed a Patna High Court order asking the CBI to set up a fresh probe team for the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case, saying changing the team now will be "detrimental" to the ongoing probe.

A bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta said: "There is no allegation made against the team conducting an investigation. We don't see any reason why the existing CBI team probing the Muzaffarpur shelter home case, should be changed at this stage.

"We don't see any reason why a new team should be constituted... We stay Patna High Court's August 29 order."

The Patna High Court had ordered that a fresh team of investigators should be constituted by the Central Bureau of Investigation's Special Director to probe the case.

Attorney General K.K. Venugopal, appearing for the CBI, brought the issue to the apex court's notice.

The existing investigating team was set up on July 30.

The bench also asked the CBI to place before it two status reports of the investigation which were filed earlier before the high court.

It listed the matter for further hearing on September 20.

Among those arrested and jailed for the multiple rapes is journalist Brajesh Thakur. Social Welfare Minister Manju Verma had to resign after it became known that her husband was in close touch with Thakur.

The Muzaffarpur horror came to light when the Bihar Social Welfare Department filed an FIR based on a social audit of the shelter home conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai that mentions incidents of rapes of minor girls.

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