Three weeks after her anticipatory bail petition was rejected by the Patna High Court, former Bihar Cabinet minister Manju Verma, who is wanted in a case relating to seizure of illegal arms from her house, has gone "untraceable".
The Bihar Police told the Supreme Court this on Wednesday, a day after the apex court enquired why she was evading arrest in the case. A shocked court could only respond with, "All is not well in Bihar," further wondering how can a former Cabinet minister go missing.
Manju's husband Chandrashekhar had surrendered on the court's insistence. Manju stepped down as the state's social welfare minister after her name cropped up in the case regarding rape of 34 minor girls at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur. Chandrashekhar had close connections with Brajesh Thakur, the man who ran the shelter home and the key conspirator in the gruesome rapes.
Senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the state police told the court that 90 days had lapsed since Manju resigned and the police wasn't aware of her whereabouts. He said the police is making all efforts to trace her.
Amused by this submission, the bench of justices Madan B Lokur, S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta said, "A former minister goes missing and the state government does not know about it. It is shocking."
The CBI, which is probing the case, had informed the court that Thakur was getting several benefits and facilities inside jail, indicating that the state was trying to shield the accused. The Muzaffarpur shelter home operated directly under Manju Verma's ministry, and due to her husband's close proximity with Thakur, nothing that happened in the shelter home was reported.
This also became grounds for the apex court to order shifting Thakur from a Bihar jail to Patiala in Punjab. In addition, the court also directed that the investigating officer of CBI probing the rapes will not be removed or transferred.
MANJU VERMA
- Manju Verma, former Bihar social welfare minister, is wanted in an Arms Act case
- Muzaffarpur shelter home came directly under her ministry
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 "Manju Verma")
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