Muzaffarpur: Ex-Bihar minister Manju Verma, in hiding over illegal arms charges, suspended by JDU

An FIR was registered against Verma and her husband after the CBI recovered arms and ammunition from her residence during raids in connection with the Muzaffarpur shelter home sexual assault case.

PATNA: Former Bihar social welfare minister Manju Verma, who's currently absconding, was suspended from the Janata Dal-United (JDU) on Thursday.

An FIR was registered against Manju Verma and her husband Chandrasekhar Verma after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) recovered arms and ammunition from her residence during raids in connection with the Muzaffarpur shelter home sexual assault case in August. Verma had later resigned from the cabinet. Her husband allegedly visited the Muzaffarpur shelter home frequently and had close connections with the accused Brajesh Thakur.

The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up Bihar Police for its failure to arrest Verma over recovery of ammunition from her home during raids by the CBI. The top court also summoned the Director General of Bihar Police to appear before it on November 27 if the police failed to arrest the former minister by then.

“Fantastic! cabinet minister (Manju Verma) on the run, fantastic. How could it happen that cabinet minister is absconding and nobody knows where she is? You realise the seriousness of the issue that cabinet minister is not traceable. It’s too much,” said Justice Madan B Lokur.

The apex court said that it was “shocked” that a former cabinet minister could not be traced by the police for over a month. “We are quite shocked that former cabinet minister cannot be traced by the police for over a month. We would like the police to tell us that how such an important person is not traceable. Director General of Police to appear before us,” said the court.

The alleged sex scandal in Muzaffarpur surfaced in a social audit conducted by Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences. More than 40 girls had been lodged at the shelter home and medical reports suggest that over half of them may have had sexual intercourse at some point of time.

With agency inputs