Ex-minister untraceable, Bihar counsel tells top court

New Delhi: The Bihar government on Wednesday informed the Supreme Court that the former social welfare minister Manju Verma, wanted in the Muzaffarpur shelter home sexual harassment case is absconding and not traceable by the police.

Responding to this submission from the state counsel, a bench of justices Madan B. Lokur, Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta observed, “It is very strange that the government doesn’t know where its former minister is. All is not well.”

The bench then directed the CBI to file chargesheet on time so that no accused could be granted default bail.

On Tuesday, the bench asked Bihar counsel as to why Manju Verma was still not arrested and sought information. Verma’s husband Chandrashekhar Verma allegedly has close ties with Thakur. Around 50 cartridges were seized from Verma’s residence when CBI conducted a raid in connection with the Muzaffarpur shelter home sex scandal. She had stepped down as the Social Welfare minister after her name surfaced in the case.

The alleged sexual exploitation was first highlighted in an audit report submitted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences to the social welfare department.