PATNA: RJD minister Kartikeya Singh late on Wednesday resigned from the cabinet after the Opposition started targeting chief minister Nitish Kumar over his induction and law department allotted to him.
Earlier in the day, Nitish Kumar who was facing the Opposition’s ire for Singh's induction into his cabinet shifted him from the law department to the sugarcane industries department. A notification to this effect was issued by chief secretary Amir Subhani.
Singh who has been slapped with a warrant of arrest in a kidnapping case was divested of the law department a day before he is expected to appear in court in a kidnapping case with his interim protection from court against any coercive action ending on September 1.
Singh is considered close to former MLA Anant Singh, who is serving a sentence in an Arms Act case in Beur central near Patna. Singh was elected as a member of the legislative council early this year.
Earlier, RJD chief Lalu Prasad had backed Kartikeya and said that there was no such case of kidnapping pending against him.
Lalu had even targeted former Bihar deputy chief minister and BJP MP Sushil Kumar Modi, calling him a ‘liar’ for his claim that Singh was involved in a kidnapping case.
Singh is likely to depose before a court at Danapur in Patna. He was expected to surrender before the court on August 16 but he instead went ahead with being sworn in as a minister in the Nitish Kumar cabinet.