Ex- mantri in Bihar moves court over her arrest

Begusarai, Nov. 6: Facing arrest in an Arms Act case after the alleged recovery of a huge cache of ammunition from her residence, former Bihar minister Manju Verma on Tuesday moved a Begusarai court, pleading with it not to declare her an “absconder”. Ms Verma had to resign as the social welfare minister from the Nitish Kumar Cabinet in August after reports suggested “close links” between her husband Chandrashekhar Verma and prime accused Brajesh Thakur in the Muzaffarpur shelter home scandal. Ms Verma was subsequently booked in an Arms Act case, which was lodged after recovery of a huge cache of ammunition from her residence in Begusarai during a raid by the CBI sleuths, probing the Muzaffarpur shelter home sex scandal. Ms Verma’s counsel Satya Narayan Mahto moved the court of additional chief judicial magistrate Prabhat Trivedi on Tuesday soon after the police approached it to declare the former minister a “proclaimed offender” for evading the arrest. A court declaring an accused a proclaimed offender entitles the police to paste a legal notice on the walls of the residence of accused, asking him or her to surrender before the court within a stipulated period, failing which the property of the accused is liable to be confiscated and auctioned. The former minister’s counsel submitted to the magisterial court that his client was not evading arrest.