PATNA: Bihar social welfare minister Manju Verma, whose husband is accused of frequenting the Muzaffarpur shelter home and having close links with the main accused in the case of sexual abuse of minor girls there, resigned on Wednesday minutes after meeting Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Sources said the CM had asked Verma to see him and, after a brief conversation with her at his 7 Circular Road office in Patna, asked her to quit the cabinet. Her resignation letter was immediately forwarded by fax to Governor Satya Pal Malik, who was in New Delhi.
The development comes a day after the Supreme Court criticised the Bihar government over the Muzaffarpur incident and asked why there was no inspection of shelter homes in the state earlier to prevent such incidents.
Verma had been under constant attack from the Opposition parties ever since the sexual exploitation of minor girls at a government-funded shelter home in Muzaffarpur came to light. Even some leaders of BJP, the ruling ally in Bihar, had sought her resignation. But both Nitish Kumar and deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi of BJP had been defending her.
Brajesh Thakur, the main accused in the Muzaffarpur scandal, had admitted during his appearance at a court earlier in the day that he and Verma’s husband, former JD(U) MLC Chandeshwar Verma, had been talking over phone.
A two-term MLA from the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U), Verma rushed back to her residence immediately after resigning and told journalists that her husband is innocent.
“I resigned because of the relentless chorus by the Opposition parties and the media seeking my resignation. I insist even now that my husband is innocent. He will also be proven innocent,” she said, adding: “I have full faith in CBI and the high court that is monitoring the probe”.
She also demanded that the call details report (CDR) of Thakur, which allegedly mentions that he and Chandeshwar Verma had 17 phone conversations between January and June, should be made public. “All those who spoke with him (Thakur) should also resign,” she said.
“The day my husband is proven innocent, I will file a defamation suit against that woman,” she added, referring to the wife of an arrested accused who had accused Chandeshwar Verma of often entering the shelter home without anyone accompanying him.
Asking Manju Verma to quit was a difficult decision for Nitish Kumar as the MLA from Cheria-Bariarpur belongs to the OBC Koeri caste, which accounts for nearly 9 per cent of Bihar’s population, making it the third largest community in the state after Muslims and Yadavs.
“This delayed resignation by the minister, which came only after heightened pressure from the Opposition parties, the media and the judiciary, shows how Nitish Kumar was keen to defend the minister despite growing evidence against her,” said Shakti Singh Yadav of the Opposition RJD.
Bihar Congress president Kaukab Quadri welcomed Verma’s resignation. “It should have come earlier. It was necessary to ensure a fair probe,” he said.