PATNA: Trouble mounted for former Bihar social welfare minister Manju Verma and her husband, former MLC Chandeshwar Verma, as a court in Begusarai on Saturday rejected the couple’s anticipatory bail plea in a case under the Arms Act lodged after live cartridges were found in their residence.
Manju Verma was forced to resign from the state cabinet on August 8 after her husband was accused of frequenting the Muzaffarpur shelter home, where 34 minor girls were subjected to sexual exploitation, and having close links with the main accused in the case, Brajesh Thakur. CBI is investigating the case.
Begusarai additional district judge (V) Diwan Abdul rejected the anticipatory bail applications filed by the couple after an FIR was registered against them by CBI under the Arms Act last week. Fifty live cartridges were recovered from the couple’s house at Cheria Bariyarpur in Begusarai district during a raid conducted by CBI on August 17.
All the cartridges of different bores recovered from the Vermas’ house were later found to be illegal and some of the cartridges even belonged to prohibited guns such as self-loading rifles (SLR). Civilians are not allowed to own SLRs. Police sources said a probe found that the cartridges in possession of the 16 bodyguards and house guards deployed with the couple were intact.
“Of the live cartridges recovered by CBI, 18 were of .323 bore, 19 of 7.62 mm calibre, six of .303 calibre and seven of 8 mm caliber,” said a senior police official, adding that the FIR was lodged by a DSP of CBI a day after the raid. If convicted in the case, the couple may have to serve three years in prison.
During the multiple raids at the residences of the politically influential couple and their relatives, CBI officials had questioned the Vermas on their alleged links with Brajesh Thakur, who was arrested on June 3. Call detail records accessed by CBI have reportedly shown that Thakur and Chandeshwar Verma had spoken to each other 17 times between January and May.
Meanwhile, Bihar urban development minister Suresh Sharma, a BJP legislator from Muzaffarpur, has lodged a defamation suit against Bihar Opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav of RJD for dragging his name in the shelter home sex scandal and seeking his resignation. The matter will be taken up for hearing on August 29.