Muzaffarpur shelter home case: Contact number of a 'mantri ji', 39 others recovered from accused Brajesh Thakur

CBI team also took into custody Rahul Anand, the son of Brajesh Thakur, on Saturday after 11 hours of search operation and questioning at the premises owned by them. However Rahul was later released.

New Delhi: In the Muzaffarpur shelter home case, 40 new names have come under the scanner, after the Muzaffarpur jail was raided on Saturday. A note was recovered from the prime accused Brajesh Thakur with a list of 40 contact numbers. While all the 40 numbers are being investigated upon, one of the contacts is seemingly that of a minister. “Mantri Ji” is written against that one number in the list. However it has not yet been confirmed which minister does the number belong to. The list has been given to Mithanpura station and n FIR is being lodged. Also, during the raid, Brajesh Thakur was not found in his cell but in the visitor’s area. The CBI made certain developments in the case on Saturday. The team took into custody the son of Brajesh Thakur, Rahul Anand, after 11 hours of search operation and questioning at the premises owned by them. However Rahul was later released. The CBI team, which had reached Thakur's Sahu Road residence at around 9 am, left at around 8 pm with his son Rahul Anand. Anand is the publisher and editor of Hindi daily "Pratah Kamal", the office of which is situated within the same premises as the residence and the shelter home which have since been sealed. The CBI team, which was also accompanied by a number of forensic experts, is understood to have inspected the shelter home after getting its seal opened, and collected documents and other items it found to be of value in the investigation. CBI sleuths also inspected the courtyard, which was dug up last month by the police, following allegations by inmates that one of the girls was beaten to death by staff members a few years ago and her body was buried at the spot. Nothing incriminating was found after the day-long excavation and the eight-feet-deep pit was again filled up. Thakur, who is in jail, heads the NGO Seva Sankalp Evam Vika Samiti, which ran the state-funded shelter home where sexual abuse of more than 30 inmates has been confirmed in medical tests. The Bihar government had cancelled the registration of the NGO earlier this week. Bihar social welfare department minister Manju Verma had to resign after links of her husband with the key accused Brajesh Thakur surfaced. (With PTI inputs)