Bihar: Supreme Court pulls up police for failing to arrest former minister Manju Verma, summons DGP

On Monady, the Supreme Court of India pulled up Bihar Police for failing to arrest former Bihar social welfare minister Manju Verma over recovery of ammunition from her home during raids by the CBI. The apex court has summoned the Director General of Bihar Police to appear before it on November 27, if the police fail to arrest the former minister even by then.

Expressing his anger over the failure of the police, Justice Madan B Lokur said, “Fantastic! cabinet minister (Manju Verma) on the run, fantastic. How could it happen that cabinet minister is absconding and nobody knows where she is? You realise the seriousness of the issue that cabinet minister is not traceable. It’s too much.”

The top court also said that it was ‘shocked’ to know that a former cabinet minister could not be traced by the police for over a month. “We are quite shocked that former cabinet minister cannot be traced by the police for over a month. We would like the police to tell us that how such an important person is not traceable. Director General of Police to appear before us,” stated the court.

In August this year, an FIR was registered against Manju Verma and her husband Chandrasekhar Verma, after the CBI recovered arms and ammunition from her residence during raids in connection with the Muzaffarpur shelter home sexual assault case.

So far the central investigating agency has conducted raids at 12 locations, including her residences on August 17 and had seized at least 50 cartridges.

After this incident, Manju Verma has resigned as the social welfare minister due to alleged connection of her husband with the prime accused in the Muzaffarpur shelter home sexual assault case. Her husband- Chandrasekhar Verma, was accused of making frequent visits to the shelter home in Muzaffarpur.

Notably, the alleged sex scandal in Muzaffarpur came to light after a social audit was conducted by Mumbai-based educational institutions, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). After the study by TISS, it was revealed that more than 40 girls had been lodged at the shelter home and medical reports suggest that over half of them may have had sexual intercourse at some point of time.

Also read: CBI vs CBI: CIC hands probe report on Alok Verma to Supreme Court with an apology