Resigns within 3 hours of assuming office
Law Kumar Mishra
Patna, November 19
Within three hours of joining his duties as education minister in Patna Secretariat, Mewalal Chaudhury on Thursday resigned from the Nitish Kumar cabinet.
He had met the chief minister, Nitish Kumar and state JDU president Bashistha Narain Singh on Thursday before assuming the office. His name plate was also displayed in the state secretariat as he joined the post.
Official sources in the CM secretariat claimed the minister was sacked on orders of the chief minister.
Mewalal, newly elected JDU MLA from Tarapur in Munger district was inducted into the Bihar cabinet on November 16. He called on CM today and submitted his papers. Now, there are 14 ministers, including CM in the cabinet. JDU has five ministers.
He was welcomed in the state secretariat by senior officers, including principal secretary of the department.
BJP central leadership was against continuation of Mewalal Chaudhury, a charge sheeted accused in Vigilance police station and at Sabour police station as it was creating a bad image for the NDA government.
Leader of opposition in the dissolved state assembly, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav had been demanding minister’s resignation from Monday alleging he was involved in criminal cases.RJD president Lalu Prasad in his tweet from jail had also commented on the induction of a charge sheet accused in his cabinet. He said BJP had promised 19 lakh jobs in its manifesto, but Nitish Kumar started the process of employment with appointing a charge-sheeted accused.
BJP was facing a crisis into its image as the list of the new ministers was prepared in consultation with the Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh, state BJP president, Sanjay Jaiswal with the chief minister. Now, BJP wants names of the JDU legislators would also be screened by the BJP leadership before they are allowed to take oath in the NDA cabinet,
Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee president Madan Mohan Jha had also challenged the appointment of Mewalal in Nitish cabinet and had threatened to launch dharna at Raj Bhawan demanding his resignation.
Former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, as the then leader of opposition in 2014 had started a campaign against Mewalal, who was vice-chancellor of Agriculture University, Sabour alleging he made irregular appointments of teachers by accepting bribes. Issue was raised in both the Houses of the state legislature too and opposition had demanded his arrest.
Following an investigation conducted by Justice SMM Alam, retired Judge of Patna High Court on the instructions of the Governor cum Chancellor charges against him were found proved and vigilance police registered cases against him at Patna and Sabour. Arrest warrant was issued against him and his offices and residences were raided at different parts of the state.
President Ram Nath Kovind was the then Governor who had ordered a probe against Mewalal.
Mewalal is presently on an interim bail and contested the assembly elections from Tarapur.
His wife Ms Neeta Chaudhury, also a former MLA of JDU, died under mysterious circumstances in the kitchen on May 27, 2019. Amitabh Kumar Das, an IPS of 1994 batch on Tuesday wrote a letter to the DG of Police S K Singhal, seeking constitution of a special investigation team to probe Mrs Chaudhury’s mysterious death. Das alleged death of Mrs Chaudhury was a big political conspiracy and linked to the scandals in the Agriculture University headed by Chaudhury.
Das said SIT was constituted by Bihar police to probe death of film star-Sushant Singh Rajput and a team was sent to Mumbai. “I hope Bihar police would show the same alertness in Neeta Chaudhury case and start intensive questioning of Mr Chaudhry,” he said,
Das said FIR is already lodged at Sabour police station against Mewalal, who comes from a politically and economically influential Kushwaha-Koeri caste in Bihar, now allied with the JDU.
