PATNA: The
Patna high court on Tuesday rejected the anticipatory bail petition of former social welfare minister Kumari
Manju Verma in an
Arms Act case. Altogether 50 bullets, including 25 of prohibited bores, were recovered from her Sripur residence under the Cheria Bariarpur police station area in Begusarai district during CBI raid on August 17 in connection with the probe into Muzaffarpur children home rape case. An FIR was lodged against Manju and her husband under Arms Act.
The Sripur house is ancestral property of Manju’s husband Chandrashekhar Verma. Manju, who is a JD(U) MLA from Cheria Bariarpur, had to resign as a minister in Nitish Kumar cabinet on August 8 after her husband’s alleged telephonic conversations with Muzaffarpur shelter home case prime accused Brajesh Thakur surfaced during the probe. The Supreme Court is monitoring the case.
The special bench of Justice Sudhir Singh, designated to hear every matter related to children home rape case, relied on the case diary, which mentioned Manju’s house caretaker Ram Vilas Verma’s statement to the police that she used to visit there for a couple of hours whenever she was in the area.
In a counter affidavit, advocate Kanhaiya Prasad Singh representing Manju, said the house from where the ammunition were recovered, has at least 50 shareholders — all relatives. He also submitted that Manju and her husband had permanently shifted to Patna in 1997.
However, additional public prosecutor Ajay Mishra opposed Singh’s plea and referred to the case diary which had a sketch of the house and the three rooms in which CBI had entered after breaking the locks. The court also considered Mishra’s argument that Manju was aware of the ammunition as these were seized from the same room where documents of personal and secret nature, including her three bank passbooks, were recovered.
Manju’s husband has also filed an anticipatory bail petition before the high court in the same case.