PATNA: Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) national president Uday Singh on Tuesday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to remove Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary from his post over allegedly misrepresenting his age to obtain reprieve in a 1995 murder case.
In his letter, former MP Singh alleged that Choudhary avoided conviction in the 1995 case, in which six people were killed, by misrepresenting his age. He said Choudhary was arrested and sent to judicial custody, and his bail petitions were rejected twice.
Later, Choudhary produced a matriculation certificate showing his age as 15, and by declaring himself a minor, he obtained a court reprieve. However, in his 2020 election affidavit, Choudhary listed his year of birth as 1969, which would have made him 26 in 1995 when the incident occurred, Singh noted in his letter.
“This is evident from the fact that he misrepresented his age to get reprieve from the court in the murder case. Such action undermines public trust in governance and the rule of law. He should be removed from office, and the law allowed to take its course,” Singh’s letter read.
Earlier, a JSP delegation led by Uday Singh visited Raj Bhavan to meet Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, but they could not meet him and instead submitted a memorandum to his office. A day earlier, JSP founder Prashant Kishor had demanded that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar remove Choudhary from the cabinet.
Samrat Choudhary, however, denied the allegations, saying the Launa-Pasa case was settled by the court back in 1997-98. “Kishor is raising the issue as he is a novice in politics,” the Deputy CM said.
Meanwhile, JSP plans to approach the court to seek justice for the victims’ families.