PATNA: Police in Bihar's Begusarai district conducted several raids on Friday to arrest Chandrashekhar Verma, the husband of former social welfare minister and JD(U) leader Manju Verma, after obtaining an arrest warrant against him from a local court.
The case pertains to the recovery of 50 live cartridges from the Vermas' house at Cheria Bariyarpur in Begusarai district by the CBI during a raid on August 17. The CBI had filed an FIR under the Arms Act against the couple. Later, a Begusarai court and the Patna High Court had rejected the anticipatory bail pleas of the Vermas.
Fearing arrest, both Chandrashekhar and Manju Verma have gone underground.
"Several raids were conducted in Begusarai, Khagaria and other nearby places, but there was no trace of the accused. A four-member police team is working to arrest Chandrashekhar Verma, against whom an arrest warrant has been obtained," said Begusarai SP Aditya Kumar.
The raids came a day after the Supreme Court, while hearing a petition on the shelter home sexual abuses, asked the Bihar Police to look into the recovery of cartridges "with some seriousness".
Manju Verma was forced to resign from the state Cabinet on August 8 after Chandrashekhar, a former JD(U) MLC, was accused of frequenting the Muzaffarpur shelter home, where 34 minor girls were subjected to sexual exploitation.
The cartridges of different bores were found to be illegal and 19 of them were meant for self-loading rifles (SLRs). Civilians are not allowed to own SLRs. A probe had found that the cartridges in possession of the 16 bodyguards and house guards deployed with the couple were intact.
Meanwhile, four people detained by the CBI on Thursday in connection with the shelter home abuses case were taken to jail on Friday.