The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a money laundering case in the Muzaffarpur shelter home case relating to alleged rape of minor girls by the functionaries of the NGO. The ED will probe the money laundering aspect of the scandal.
The ED case follows a CBI case to probe the scandal at the shelter home. The ED will soon issue summons to the accused persons including the owner of the shelter home Brajesh Thakur. The ED will probe if illegal funds were generated and laundered by the alleged criminal activity, officials said.
As many as 34 girls were allegedly raped at the centre run by Thakur, chief of the state-funded NGO.
The alleged sexual exploitation of the girls was first highlighted in an audit report submitted by the Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS), Mumbai, to the Bihar Government's Social Welfare Department in April this year. An FIR was lodged on May 31 against 11 people, including Thakur and the probe was later taken over by the CBI.
Sexual abuse of 34 inmates out of 42 staying at the shelter home was confirmed in their medical examination while two others who were unwell were yet to undergo medical tests.
The NGO running the shelter home in Muzaffarpur was subsequently blacklisted by the State Government and the girls were shifted to shelter homes in Patna and Madhubani.
