Bihar Education Minister Mewalal Choudhary resigned three days after taking the oath
Patna:
The fourth term of Bihar’s chief minister Nitish Kumar began with the resignation of a minister three days after he and his 14-member cabinet were sworn in. Education Minister Mewalal Choudhary had to resign after the opposition, Rashtriya Janata Dal, denounced a three-year corruption case against him and questioned why he had been installed in the government.
A criminal case was brought against the JD (U) MLA of Tarapur in 2017 after allegations that it was involved in irregularities in appointments to the positions of assistant professor and junior scientists as rector of the Bhagalpur University of Agriculture.
He was suspended from the party for a time after taunting by the BJP, which was in opposition at the time.
The case was closed and investigations were carried out against it after the sanction of President Ram Nath Kovind, who was then the governor of Bihar. A charge sheet has not yet been filed against him.
Noting that, Mr. Choudhary said that filing a case is not an indication of guilt. “There are cases against so many legislators,” he had said, adding that he had not included the matter in his election affidavit as “the investigation is ongoing. Nothing has happened.”
Claiming that he was the informant in the case and not the wrongdoer, he had also targeted RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, who had spearheaded the attack against him. Yadav, he said, had corruption cases against him and shouldn’t be the one to point the finger.
In a series of tweets, Tejashwi Yadav had accused four-time Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of appointing “criminals” to retain power in the state.
“Power is protecting criminals … Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has granted an exemption to looting and theft by appointing Mewalal Chaudhary … Chief Minister will continue his speech on crime, corruption and communalism to save his chair … None of the minority communities became ministers, “he published.
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