SC pulls up Bihar Police for failing to arrest former minister Manju Verma, summons DGP

The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up Bihar Police for its failure to arrest former Bihar social welfare minister Manju Verma over recovery of ammunitions from her home during raids by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The top court also summoned the Director General of Bihar Police to appear before it on November 27 if the police failed to arrest the former minister by then.

Justice Madan B Lokur expressed anger over the failure of the police, saying, “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 apex court said that it was “shocked” 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,” said the court.

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

The central agency had conducted raids at 12 locations, including her residences, on August 17 and had seized at least 50 cartridges.

Manju Verma had resigned as the social welfare minister due to alleged connection of her husband with the prime accused in the Muzaffarpur shelter home sexual assaut case. Her husband was accused of making frequent visits to the shelter home in Muzaffarpur.

The alleged sex scandal in Muzaffarpur surfaced in a social audit conducted by Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences. 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.

(With agency inputs)