Four girls earlier housed at the Muzaffarpur shelter where minors were allegedly raped were found missing along with three other inmates from a home in Patna’s Mokama early on Saturday, triggering a hunt that tracked down six of them after over 12 hours.

The disappearance coincided with a Pocso court in Delhi starting hearings in the Muzaffarpur Balika Grih case being probed by the CBI and monitored by the Supreme Court. The Opposition alleged the disappearance was a conspiracy to protect the Muzaffarpur perpetrators.

The six girls were found at 10pm on Saturday in Darbhanga, around 125km from Mokama. “One inmate, a victim of the Muzaffarpur case, is still missing. We are hopeful of finding her, too,” Patna SSP Garima Malik said.

Raj Kumar, director of the social welfare department, said the Muzaffarpur survivors had been kept at Mokama for treatment as they were suffering from trauma and psychological disorders.