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

JDU leader and former Bihar social welfare minister Manju Verma, who had stepped down under relentless pressure to take moral responsibility for her husband's alleged links to Muzaffarpur shelter home case, on Thursday was suspended from the party.

"Muzaffarpur shelter home case: JDU leader and former state minister Manju Verma has been suspended from the party," the news agency ANI reported.

Muzaffarpur shelter home case: JDU leader and former state minister Manju Verma has been suspended from the party. #Bihar

— ANI (@ANI) November 15, 2018

In July, over 30 girls, aged among seven to 14 years, were 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.

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Since then, RJD leader and former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejaswi Yadav has been critical of the Nitish Kumar government. The political furore further took a dramatic turn after media accessed several pictures of Brajesh Thakur, with prominent political leaders from Bihar including Nitish Kumar and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav.

The Supreme Court in July had also come down heavily on the Bihar government, saying the state had financed the NGO in a way by giving public funds to the accused shelter homes.

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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 to the same.