Bihar social welfare minister resigns

Two days after Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar said that the social welfare minister Manju Verma would resign only if indicted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Verma gave her resignation to Kumar amid relentless pressure over the Muzaffarpur sexual abuse case.

“The media and the opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav have created a furore against me, so I have resigned. The CM did not ask me to resign,” Verma said on Wednesday after submitting her resignation.

She said news reports had surfaced that her husband Chandrashekhar Verma had spoken 17 times to the main accused, Brajesh Thakur, over a period of a few months. “We are in political and social life. If any person calls us with a problem, we speak to him or even call back if we are not able to attend to the call. I demand that the entire call record details of Thakur be made public to expose how other prominent politicians were also in touch with him. My husband is innocent and CBI probe will prove it,” she said.