The Patna high court Wednesday sought a reply from Bihar’s social welfare department in connection with the allegations made by an inmate of a shelter home at Gaighat in the state capital, who had claimed that she and others were forced to submit themselves to “immoral acts” after being sedated.

The next hearing in the matter, being heard by the division bench of chief justice Sanjoy Karol and S Kumar, has been scheduled for Monday next.

The HC has stepped in on the recommendation of its juvenile justice monitoring committee (JJMC), which disputed the clean chit earlier given by the social welfare department to the shelter home, Uttar Raksha Grih, which houses 260 female inmates against the sanctioned strength of 148.

Currently, the facility is run by child protection officer (CPO) Vandana Gupta, who is designated as the home superintendent.

In its report, the JJMC had informed the HC that their three-member team had visited the home on January 30, 2021, and met the superintendent, who told them that 260 inmates were residing at the home at the time, of which 30 were mentally challenged.

The JJMC also found that CCTVs had not been working. It later submitted a report on February 9, 2021, before the additional chief secretary of social welfare department, Patna district judge and others, but no action was taken to date.

A few years back, Bihar was rocked by the infamous Muzaffarpur shelter home sexual horror case, in which more than 34 minor girls were raped for months between 2018 and 2019 at the facility run by an NGO.

The case led to a widespread outrage following which the Supreme Court transferred the case to a Delhi court, which, on February 11, 2020, pronounced its judgment and sentenced NGO owner Brajesh Thakur and 10 others to life in prison.