In an early morning operation, the CBI on Friday started searches at five premises in Patna and Begusarai of former Bihar Minister Manju Verma in connection with the Muzzafarpur shelter home abuse case. Meanwhile, the CBI also conducted raids at 12 places in four cities of Bihar in connection with the case.
Manju Verma resigned from the post after her husband, Chandrakant Verma, was accused of having alleged links with Brajesh Thakur, the key mastermind of the Muzaffarpur shelter home rapes. Her resignation came a couple of days after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar assured that the culprits behind the alleged incident would not be spared, and would be put behind the bars. The former State Minister lately has been in the eye of the storm, after the Opposition parties demanded her resignation over her husband's alleged involvement surfaced.
According to CBI, Verma's husband Chandeshwar Verma was earlier accused of visiting the Muzaffarpur shelter home for minor girls "frequently". His Call Detail Records (CDR) too had said that he had conversed with the main accused in the case Brajesh Thakur 17 times from January to May this year. However, the couple had denied the allegations.
Though the BJP stood beside her, one of her party colleagues, Gopal Narayan Singh had demanded her resignation. The issue of alleged sexual exploitation of more than 40 girls at a Muzaffarpur shelter home was uncovered more than a month ago by the Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences. later, 11 employees of the child shelter home were arrested.
Education Minister Krishna Nandan Prasad Verma was given an additional charge of the Social Welfare Department, a day after Manju tendered her resignation from the post in connection with the case.