The Bihar Police on Thursday booked Union minister Giriraj Singh and 32 others in a case of alleged land grabbing, The Hindu reported.

The Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Nawada in Bihar and the others have been accused of coercing Ram Narayan Prasad, a resident of Asopur village in Danapur, to give up two acres of land. Prasad then petitioned a Scheduled Caste-Scheduled Tribe special court, which directed the police to register a case against the minister and the others.

Sandeep Kumar, the officer in charge of the Danapur police station, told the daily that the accused had been booked under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal questioned the government and the state’s ruling party, the Janata Dal (united). Tejashwi Yadav asked Chief Minister Nitish Kumar if he will resign now. “Will you move out of alliance with the BJP now? Where has your morality vanished now?” he tweeted, referring to Kumar as “Mr Conscientious”.

Advertisement

Kumar had broken off the alliance with the RJD in 2017 after massive corruption allegations against RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and Tejashwi came up.

“Please conduct an inquiry at your level for who knows the minister [Singh] might send the poor people [who levelled the charges against him] to Pakistan”, Tejashwi Yadav told Modi. He also accused Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi of being silent on the matter.