Warrant out for arrest of Bihar ex-minister
POLICE SAID THE CELLPHONE NUMBERS OF VERMA AND HER CLOSE AIDES HAD BEEN PUT UNDER SURVEILLANCE, BUT THE FORMER MINSTER HAD BEEN CHANGING HER LOCATION FREQUENTLY TO AVOID ARREST
PATNA: Hours after the Supreme Court pulled up the Bihar government for its inability to trace former social welfare minister Kumari Manju Verma, a Manjhaul court in Begusarai district issued an arrest warrant against her on Wednesday.
A second-time MLA of the JD(U) from Cheria Bariapur constituency in the district, Verma has gone into hiding after the CBI registered an FIR against her and her husband under the Arms Act following the recovery of ammunition from their house.
The court said there were sufficient grounds in the application seeking an arrest warrant against her and authorised the police to arrest her.
“We will now attach her property if she does not surrender,” said a police officer amid criticism over the failure to arrest the MLA in spite of having formed several teams and conducting raids at more than 10 places across the state.
Police said the cellphone numbers of Verma and her close aides had been put under surveillance, but the former minister had been changing her location frequently to avoid arrest.
The CBI, which is probing the Muzaffarpur shelter home sexual abuse case, had raided Verma’s house at Arjun Tola in Begusarai on August 17 and recovered 50 illegal cartridges. An FIR was registered on August 18.
On August 24, the Begusarai court rejected the anticipatory bail petitions moved by Verma and her husband in the Arms Act case.
She had resigned as minister on August 8 after Shiba Kumari Singh, wife of incarcerated Muzaffarpur child protection officer Ravi Kumar Raushan, alleged that her husband used to visit the shelter home quite often.
The Supreme Court had on Tuesday pulled up Bihar police for not arresting Verma even after her anticipatory bail application was dismissed by the Patna High Court on October 9. Her husband Chandrashekhar had surrendered before a court in Begusarai on Monday in connection with the arms case.