Nitish acting with "political motive" against my brother:Raghuvansh

New Delhi, Dec 30 (UNI) Embarassed over the charges of child labour against his brother, Union Rural Development Minister and senior RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh today shot a letter to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, accusing him of acting with a "political motive" in instituting a ''second inquiry'' into the matter.

Mr Singh also accused BJP Minister in Mr Kumar's government Sushil Modi of violating official secrets law, and demanded his dismissal.

''We are surprised over the politics being played by your government over the alleged violation of the Child Labour Act by my brother Raghuraj Singh,'' he wrote in the letter.

The Union Minister contended that there was no need of another inquiry into the charges after the local administration had brought out the facts in its inquiry.

''We are of the firm belief that child labour was a crime and its perpetrators should be brought to book, but the matter should not be politicised...It seems the report of the preliminary inquiry was not liked by your government, so you went for a higher-level probe.

I don't object even to this. But why a second inquiry? People should know,'' said Mr Singh.

The Union Minister also alleged that the confidential official files relating to the second inquiry were leaked to the media by Mr Modi and demanded his dismissal for violating the official secrets law.

Mr Raghuraj Singh was reportedly held by the Bihar Labour Commissioner guilty of violating labour laws after a media report said that children were being used to till land owned by the family of the Union Rural Development Minister in place of oxen in Vaishali.

The Nitish Kumar government subsequently had ordered an inquiry, which finally found the Minister's brother guilty of using child labour.

Mr Modi had defended the government's stand saying that the reports of the use of child labour were found to be true officials of the labour department visited the spot.

UNI