New Delhi: Trouble for M Nageswara Rao for his stint as interim director of the Central Bureau of Investigation has come from an unlikely quarter, as the Supreme Court on Thursday accused him of contempt for the laxity in the investigation into rapes of children in Bihar's government-run shelter homes.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi came down heavily on Rao for transferring the agency’s former joint director AK Sharma, who was probing the shelter home cases, out of the agency in violation of the court's order and has directed him to personally appear before it on February 12.
Remarking that Rao had committed contempt, Justice Gogoi said, "God help you if you played with our order".
The court took serious note of violation of two earlier orders of the apex court and issued contempt notice to Rao for transferring Sharma to the CRPF on January 17 without taking prior permission from the court. The SC is monitoring the probe into the shelter home sex abuse cases.
The bench, which also comprised Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, directed CBI Director Rishi Kumar Shukla to give the names of officers who were part of the process in transferring Sharma out of the probe agency.
The top court referred to its earlier orders in which it had asked CBI not to remove Sharma from the team probing Bihar shelter home cases.
Besides Rao, the bench also sought appearance of all other CBI officers who were involved in the transfer process of Sharma on February 12. It also directed for presence of S Bhasu Ram, in-charge Director of Prosecution CBI, for violating its order.
Several girls were allegedly raped and sexually abused at an NGO-run shelter home in Muzaffarpur and the issue had come to light following a report by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).
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