Muzaffarpur shelter home case: Delhi HC issues notice to CBI in appeal filed by convict Brajesh Thakur

Delhi High Court on Wednesday (July 22) issued notice to CBI in an appeal filed by Brajesh Thakur challenging his conviction in Muzaffarpur shelter home case. 

The notice was issued by a HC bench of Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar. The court will now hear the matter on August 25. It is to be noted that Thakur has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a lower court for the offences of gang rape of several girls at the shelter home. 

Besides Thakur, five others were also awarded life imprisonment by Additional Session Judge Saurabh Kulshreshtha of the Saket court. Thakur was also ordered to pay a fine of Rs 32,200,00 by the lower court. Thakur headed a state-funded NGO named Sewa Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti which ran the shelter home at Muzaffarpur.

In his appeal, Thakur has claimed that the trial court conducted hearing in his matter in a "hurried manner" and thus violated his right to a free and fair trial. Thakur told the court that "the hurried manner in which the trial was conducted by the Special Judge, (POCSO), Saket was a flagrant violation of inter alia the right of the appellant to a free and fair trial guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India and lawful applications and submissions/ requests made by and on behalf of the Appellant were dismissed in a mechanical manner without due application of judicial mind with a view to somehow conclude the trial."

Thakur also claimed in his appeal that the lower court did not appreciate the fact that a case relating to rape the prosecution must first and foremost establish that an accused is potent.

"The said fact (potent) needs to be established by the prosecution as a foundational fact without which the entire case of the prosecution will collapse. For that the Trial Court has failed to appreciate that there is no presumption under law that a person who is more than 50 years of age and admittedly suffering from high blood sugar has to be potent," the appeal said.