Just hours after taking office as Bihar’s education minister on Thursday, Mewalal Choudhary, JD (U) MLA from Tarapur, submitted his resignation from the ministry. Opposition parties, including the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), had been pulling the government and attacking Bihar’s Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for incorporating Choudhary, who was expelled from the party in 2017 after an FIR was filed in against you in a corruption case. Following the prime minister’s advice, Governor Phagu Chauhan accepted Choudhary’s resignation.
Mewalal Choudhary was accused of irregularities in the appointment of assistant professors and young scientists at the Bihar Agricultural University (BAU) in Bhagalpur when he was its rector.
A former IPS officer, Amitabh Kumar Das, had written a letter to the DGP on Tuesday and requested an investigation into the mysterious death of former MLA Neeta Choudhary, Mewalal’s wife, on June 2, 2019. The IPS officer of the group of 1994 said he suspected Neeta might have known about the corruption at Sabour Agricultural College.
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Choudhary, who had threatened to bring a defamation case against the former IPS official, took over his department after meeting with Prime Minister Nitish Kumar and JD (U) State President Bashistha Narain Singh.
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On Thursday he was called by the CM and after a meeting behind closed doors for 30 minutes, he presented his resignation.
“Nitish Kumar is the real culprit. Why did you appoint a corrupt person as a minister? He acted against the mandate and is now making drama by asking him to resign, ”said RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav. CPI-ML Secretary of State Kunal called it a victory for the people. “The government has to bow to public pressure,” he said.
According to sources, an FIR was presented against him on February 20, 2017, at the Sabour Police Station in Bhagalpur by the directives of the then Governor and Chancellor of Universities in Bihar, Ram Nath Kovind, who established an investigation committee later several applicants alleged irregularities in the appointments.
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Choudhary was registered under sections 409 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (use as genuine forged document) and 120 ( B) (conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Three days after the FIR came forward against him, Choudhary was expelled from JD (U), party sources said. On August 22, 2017, the Patna High Court granted Choudhary an advance bond.
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