RJD demands Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's resignation over 1991 murder case against him

Continuing the political crisis in Bihar, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Jagadanand Singh demanded Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s resignation over murder charges against him on Monday at a press conference.

Nitish Kumar is accused in a murder case under section 302 and also Arms Act: Jagdanand Singh, RJD pic.twitter.com/UNwdQJivMV

— ANI (@ANI) July 31, 2017

The charges that the RJD is referring to are criminal cases filed against Nitish Kumar where he was accused of the murder of Congress leader Sitaram Singh and injuring four others ahead of the Barh Lok Sabha by-election in November 1991_._

“The victim’s family has been denied justice. Nitish Kumar does not have a right to sit in the chief minister’s chair. He has criminal cases against him while those against others are civil charges,” Singh said at a press conference on Monday, referring to the corruption charges against Lalu Prasad Yadav’s son and former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav.

“Nitish Kumar has been holding the chief ministerial post since after the court took cognisance of his crime. A criminal must not be allowed to hold this position,” he added.

On 27 July, Lalu Prasad Yadav had tweeted the Bihar chief minister’s affidavit released at the time he filed his nomination papers. In it were mentioned a list of criminal cases filed against Nitish Kumar.

नीतीश के खिलाफ पब्लिक को गोली मारने का मामला है। स्वयं उसने affidavite में माना है। वह कंबल ओढ़ कर घी पी रहे है। पढ़िए pic.twitter.com/MUmOkKgV3q

— Lalu Prasad Yadav (@laluprasadrjd) July 27, 2017

In his tweet, Lalu had said that there’s a murder case against Nitish and that the Bihar chief minister had admitted so in a affidavit.

The tweet, which also included an image of the affidavit shows Nitish being charged under sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 302 (punishment for murder) and 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code.

Ever since JD(U) chief Nitish announced his decision to break the grand alliance in Bihar with RJD and Congress on 26 July, several RJD and Congress members expressed shock over the “betrayal”. Lalu brought up the criminal cases against Kumar in an attempt to discredit the JD(U) chief and protect his son Tejashwi from the corruption charges.

“There is a case of murder under sections 302 and 307 of the IPC against Nitish Kumar, which dates back to 1991. It can lead him to life imprisonment. We knew about it. The charge against Nitish Kumar is much more serious and bigger than the charge of corruption (against Tejashwi Yadav),” Lalu had said on the day Nitish announced his resignation.

It was alleged that Nitish, along with other party members, created disturbance at the Barh polling booth in 1991 which led to clashes between villagers. The police initially dropped the charges against Nitish, but they were levelled against him again in 2009, reported  The Times of India . 

On Monday, the Patna High Court dismissed two PILs challenging the formation of the new government by Nitish’s JD(U) along with the BJP. RJD MLAs Saroj Yadav and Chandan Verma had filed one of the PILs while Samajwadi Party member Jitendra Kumar had filed the other.

The PILs had been filed ahead of the crucial trust vote that the new JD(U)-BJP government took in the Bihar Assembly on 28 July.

After hearing all parties, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice AK Upadhyay dismissed the two PILs saying no intervention of the court is required, after floor test in the state Assembly.

Nitish took oath as the chief minister again with the support of the National Democratic Alliance on Thursday along with senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi who swore in as the deputy chief minister. Nitish went on to win the floor test in Bihar Assembly the next day with a majority of 131-108.

The JD(U) and RJD, however, are not unfamiliar with its leaders being charged with criminal cases. An IndiaSpend  analysis published in 2015 showed that 59 percent of the MLAs in the Bihar Assembly faced criminal prosecution. Forty-nine RJD MLAs had criminal cases pending against them while 37 JD(U) MLAs had criminal charges against them.