Manju Verma met chief minister Nitish Kumar and handed over her resignation to him, sources in the chief minister's office said.
The resignation came a day after CM Kumar said that he will not spare anyone found involved even if it is minister Verma.
"She (Manju Verma) has denied her involvement in the case. A CBI probe is underway. Anyone found guilty, even the Ministers, will be sent to jail. No one will be spared," Nitish Kumar had said on Tuesday.
Manju has been in the eye of the storm after jailed child protection officer’s wife alleged that minister’s husband Chandeshwar Verma frequently visited the shelter home’s upper floor (where girls lived) after asking the accompanying officers to stay on the ground floor.
Opposition leaders have alleged that Manju Verma was aware of her husband's frequent visits to the Muzaffarpur shelter home where 34 minor girls were raped.
Opposition parties and a section of BJP have demanded Verma’s resignation over the alleged involvement of her husband in the case and delay on her department’s part in lodging an FIR after receiving the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) social audit report, which indicated sexual and physical abuse of minor girls run by NGO Sewa Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti.
Last week, senior BJP leader CP Thakur had demanded that Verma should resign owning moral responsibility for the alleged sexual abuse of minor girls at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur.
The former Union minister said Verma of the JD(U) should take a call on the demand for her resignation by opposition parties, keeping in view the "lapses on part of the social welfare department" on which the scandal has been blamed.
"The scandal points at huge lapses on part of the state social welfare department. How could the department be unaware of such a huge racket taking place right under its nose?" Thakur asked.
"There are also complaints of similar irregularities having taken place at other organisations controlled by the department," Thakur said.
(With inputs from agencies)
from Times of India https://ift.tt/2ASca9S
