Muzaffarpur (Bihar), Jun 25 (PTI) The Child Protection Officer of Muzaffarpur district has been arrested in connection with the alleged sexual exploitation of girls at a state-funded shelter home in Bihar, the police said today.

"We arrested the officer yesterday based on the testimony of some of the girls who had been lodged at the shelter home, and whom we had questioned as part of the investigations," Senior Superintendent of Police Harpreet Kaur told PTI.

"The total number of people arrested in the case has now reached 10. We are on the lookout for people absconding," she said.

The matter came to light earlier this year when the Bihar Social Welfare Department filed an FIR based on a social audit of the shelter home conducted by a Mumbai-based institute. The audit report stated that many girls at the shelter home had complained of sexual abuse.

A special investigation team was formed to probe the complaints.

The NGO running the shelter home in Muzaffarpur was blacklisted and the girls were shifted to shelter homes in Patna and Madhubani.

Women staff members of the shelter home and Brajesh Thakur, who ran the NGO, were among those who had been arrested in connection with the case.

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