Nitish Kumar breaks silence on Bihar shelter home rapes, says he is 'ashamed'

PATNA: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar broke his silence on the Muzaffarpur child sexual abuse case on Friday, saying he was in pain and deeply embarrassed over the matter and even felt remorseful over what had happened.

The case, especially the revelation that the main accused enjoyed political patronage, bodes ill for Kumar’s public image in the run-up to the 2019 general election given that he is credited with creating a new vote bank among women by working towards their empowerment in Bihar.

“I am deeply embarrassed over the Muzaffarpur incident. I am in such pain I cannot explain… I feel Iam affected by remorse too. A sin has been committed in Muzaffarpur. I can assure all of Bihar — no accused, whoever he may be, will be allowed to go scot-free,” Kumar said while launching a CM Kanya Yojana here under which Rs 54,100 will be given to each girl child in the state in instalments from birth till she turns a graduate. In his 25-minute speech, Kumar spoke at length on his initiatives for women’s empowerment before devoting the last five minutes to the Muzaffarpur case. The CM’s comments came a day after RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said in an interview to ET that “CM’s silence is criminal”.


“On the one hand, I am launching the CM Kanya Yojana and this gives my mind solace. On the other hand, I am in pain over Muzaffarpur. I want to assure – till I am alive, I will work for a better society and till I am CM, there will be rule of law. There will be no compromise on that,” Kumar said. “There are some people whose character is bad — they can do any heinous thing — for power, money or just a dirty mind. We will assure such punishment for them that a message goes out to society,” he said.

Accompanied on social welfare minister Manju Verma, who has been under fire over the case, Kumar said the social welfare department was in charge of running such shelter homes. This led mediapersons to pose pointed questions to her thereafter.