RJD wants Nitish removed as CM

The RJD on Tuesday demanded dismissal of Nitish Kumar as Bihar chief minister after a key accused in the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case filed a petition in a special court recently seeking a probe into the role of Kumar and several others in the case.

Addressing a press conference here, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad's son and Leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Yadav said the special court in Muzaffarpur recently forwarded the petition of Ashwini Kumar, who is facing charges of administering sedatives to the victims, to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for an inquiry into his claims.

Citing the claim made by the accused before the special court, Yadav accused Kumar of "tampering of evidence to protect all those involved" in the case since the day it surfaced in Muzaffarpur district last year.

He also said one of the sitting ministers in Kumar's government and his (minister's) close aide too were involved in the case, but they have remained out of the purview of the investigation, as "incriminating evidence" against them were "suppressed" at the behest of the Bihar chief minister.

While Yadav declined to take the name of the minister and his close aide, he demanded that the call detail records (CDRs) of the mobile phone of Brajesh Thakur, the alleged kingpin of the case, be made public, claiming that "the duo and many others will be exposed".

He also threatened that he would make the CDRs public if the Bihar government does not do so.

"One of the victims, in her statement, had said that a pot-bellied man, sporting a moustache, used to visit the shelter home. People want to know who this man is," Yadav said in a veiled reference to the minister.

The RJD leader demanded that the Bihar chief minister should present himself before the CBI for a probe into the allegations against him and the CBI should also "honestly" investigate the case.

The ruling JD-U claims that the special court in Muzaffarpur did not order any probe against Kumar on Ashwini's plea, saying it was "a routine process" of the court to hear a petition and then forward it to the investigation agency for consideration.

Yadav rejected the JD(U)'s claim saying, "They are giving misleading statements to suppress the issue".

The Supreme Court recently transferred the trial of a case from Bihar to a court in Delhi, rebuking the Bihar government over the state of affairs in the shelter and child care homes across the state.