Muzaffarpur hit-and-run case: Ruckus in Bihar Assembly

Patna, Feb 27: The Bihar Assembly was on Tuesday adjourned till 2 pm following a ruckus over the recent hit-and-run case in Muzaffarpur that claimed the lives of nine children. Manoj Baitha, a district-level BJP worker from Sitamarhi, has been accused of mowing down the children with his SUV on Saturday.

He was suspended from the saffron party last night for a period of six years after an FIR was lodged against him in connection with the case. As soon as the House assembled this morning, on the second day of the budget session, an adjournment motion over the hit-and-run case was moved by RJD MLAs Samir Kumar Mahaseth, Sweety Hembrom, Ejya Yadav and Shakti Singh Yadav. Speaker Vijay Kumar Choudhary, however, rejected the motion and said the matter should be raised "at an appropriate time so that the government too can come up with its reply".

Protesting the speaker's stance, Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav said, "When Pradyumn was recently killed inside a school at Gurugram, it led to a public outcry. A CBI inquiry too was instituted. Did the lives of nine deceased children from Muzaffarpur have less value just because they came from backward classes.

Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Shravan Kumar tried to pacify the opposition members with the assurance that "nobody will be spared under the current regime". Urban development minister Suresh Sharma, who is also a BJP MLA from Muzaffarpur, said instructions have been issued for the arrest of Manoj Baitha. He, however, refuted the allegations made by the opposition that the accused was inebriated. As the RJD MLAs refused to relent and shouted slogans against the Nitish Kumar government, the Speaker adjourned the House till 2pm.

PTI