Bihar Minister Resigns Over Muzaffarpur Shelter Home Rape Horror

Bihar social welfare minister Manju Verma tendered her resignation on Wednesday.

Patna, Aug 8: Bihar social welfare minister Manju Verma tendered her resignation on Wednesday in the wake of the nationwide uproar over the Muzaffarpur shelter sex abuse scandal that erupted under her watch.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had on Monday backed the minister and said that Verma will be shown the door only if anything against her is found during the investigation.

Verma, a JD(U) MLA from Cheria-Bariarpur, is in the eye of the storm after the name of her husband, Chandeshwar Verma, emerged in connection with the horrific case related to the rape of 34 minor girls at the shelter home in Muzaffarpur.

Shiva Kumari, wife of the arrested Muzaffarpur district child protection officer Ravi Kumar Raushan, had alleged that Chandeshwar Verma, a former MLC, had often entered into the rooms of the minor girls at the shelter home without anyone accompanying him.

Call records of the minister’s husband traced by CBI also showed that he had spoken to the key accused in the case Brajesh Thakur 17 times.

Ever since Chandeshwar Verma’s name surfaced in the case, opposition parties had been demanding Manju Verma’s removal from the state cabinet and the arrest of her husband.

The minister had, however, defended her husband earlier and assigned political motives to the allegation. “Some people are busy leveling baseless charges against me and my husband with ulterior, political motives. My husband has absolutely no role in what has happened… If he is found guilty, I will have no qualms in hanging him at a public square,” the minister had said at a programme recently.