Muzaffarpur Shelter Home Case: Bihar police attaches absconding ex-minister Manju Verma’s property

The Bihar Police on Saturday attached the property of ‘absconding’ former social welfare minister Manju Verma in connection with the Muzaffarpur shelter home case. The former Bihar minister is on the run after registration of an FIR against her and husband Chandrasekhar Verma – a close aide of key accused Brajesh Thakur – under the Arms Act case.

"Muzaffarpur shelter home case: Police attach the property of former Bihar Minister Manju Verma at her residence in Begusarai," the news agency ANI reported.

Muzaffapur shelter home case: Police attach the property of former Bihar Minister Manju Verma at her residence in Begusarai. pic.twitter.com/AxhZZx7zP4

— ANI (@ANI) November 17, 2018

The development came a day after the court in Begusarai ordered for attaching her properties following the recovery of 50 live cartridges from their residence in Patna and Begusarai during a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raid.

Read | Muzaffarpur Shelter Home case: Manju Verma, former Bihar social welfare minister, suspended from JDU

Verma had stepped down as the minister for social welfare in August following reports that her husband had close connections with Brajesh Thakur, the prime accused in the Muzaffarpur sexual abuse case. Thakur is currently going through legal procedures in Muzaffarpur jail.

Since then, the social welfare minister has been absconding even after the Patna High Court last month had rejected her bail application, where she pleaded that she was not evading arrest, but "seeking relief as per law" and hence, she may not be proclaimed an absconder.  

Last month a court in Begusarai had issued a warrant against Verma.

In July, over 30 girls, aged among seven to 14 years, were allegedly drugged, scalded with boiling water, raped and forced to sleep naked at the shelter home run by Brajesh Thakur, the chief of a state-funded NGO. The alleged sexual exploitation of the minor girls was first highlighted in an audit report submitted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences to the state's social welfare department.

Read | Muzaffarpur case: SC says facts “very disturbing”, asks for probe against former minister

The CBI is currently investigating the case, which relates to the mental, physical and sexual exploitation of the girls residing at the Balika Grih of Bihar's Muzaffarpur. So far, 17 people have been arrested in connection with the same.