RJD reminds CM Nitish of shelter home case after Edu Min resigns over corruption charges

Hitting out at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar after newly appointed Education minister Mewalal Choudhary resigned over corruption allegations, the RJD has said that JDU is attempting to give the impression of taking a moral high-ground even though they created the problem in the first place. In a tweet on Thursday, RJD accused Nitish Kumar of appointing a corruption-tainted politician in his cabinet and dismissed his resignation as a 'farce', stating that if Nitish would be "clean", he would take retirement from politics after the Muzaffarpur Shelter Home case. 

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Muzaffarpur Shelter Home Case

In May 2018, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) submitted a report to the Bihar government highlighting the alleged sexual abuse of 34 minor girls in the shelter home. The shelter home was funded by ministry for social welfare under JDU's Manju Verma and her husband Chandrashekhar Verma had close ties with owner of a newspaper who ran the shelter home - Brajesh Thakur. Verma had resigned in August 2018 and spent six months in jail in another case under the arms act. However, in elections this year, JDU fielded her from Cheria Bariarpur constituency in Begusarai, but she lost to RJD’s Raj Vanshi Mahto by a massive margin of 40,897 votes. Earlier, after a CBI probe, a Delhi court in February had convicted Thakur in the shelter home case, but neither Manju nor Chandrashekhar were mentioned in the charge sheet.

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Mewalal Choudhary steps down

Three days after being sworn-in as Bihar's education minister, JDU MLA Mewalal Choudhary, resigned on Thursday, after CM Nitish Kumar asked him to do so. Mewalal Choudhary was booked in 2017 under IPC sections 409, 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120B, for alleged discrepancies in the appointment of 167 assistant-cum-junior scientists at Bihar Agriculture University at Sabaur in Bhagalpur, while he was vice-chancellor of the university between 2010 and 2015. Replacing Mewalal, Governor Phagu Chouhan has appointed JD(U) Bihar chief Ashok Choudhary as education minister on CM Nitish Kumar's recommendation.

READ | Bihar Education Minister Mewalal Choudhary Resigns Within 3 Days Over Corruption Charges

While Mewalal Choudhary has dismissed the allegations against him, the Tarapur MLA has declared the same in his election affidavit. The RJD too slammed Choudhary for his defence, demanding Nitish Kumar to explain if a charge sheet will be filed by his government in this case. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav called Choudhary's resignation a farce, calling Nitish Kumar 'too tired to govern'. Nearly 70 percent of MLAs in Bihar’s newly elected assembly have criminal charges against their names, ranging from murder and attempt to murder to kidnapping and crime against women.

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