Patna: Chief minister Nitish Kumar is not responsible if houses of Dalits are burnt in Bihar, former education minister and ruling party JDU leader Ashok Choudhary said at his residence in reply to a question by The Telegraph on Friday.

Choudhary was addressing the press on a dozen Dalit houses being set on fire at Mallikpur village under Raghopur constituency in Vaishali. With him were Ravi Jyoti, state president of the party's Dalit cell, MLC Dilip Choudhary and former MLA Arun Manjhi.

Asked the logic for holding the press conference and how Dalits houses were burnt when the police and administration was under Nitish in Bihar, Choudhary said: "Supposing you have come to me and then I quarrel with you, how you can blame Nitish Kumar for this matter? There are different types of people in society, how can we stop them?"

Choudhary's reply raises some questions given that law and order is a state affair and the chief minister is responsible for maintaining it.

Two days ago, houses of people belonging to the Dalit community were set on fire in Raghopur, the constituency represented by leader of the Opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav.

On Thursday, a team led by Choudhary visited Mallikpur to see what arrangements could be made by the government.

Without naming Tejashwi, Choudhary said: "The Dalits are surrounded by people of a particular community who ruled the state in the 1990s and people of the same political party are in a hurry to come to power by flaring up caste wars over there. But such things will not be tolerated in the regime of Nitish Kumar."

Choudhary said he had spoken about the village with Nitish as well as the Vaishali district magistrate (DM) and superintendent of police (SP).

The former Bihar Congress president, who recently shifted loyalty to Nitish, said the government will protect Dalits and take strict action against people responsible for attacks on them.

Choudhary further said that it's been three days but the leader who represents the constituency - read Tejashwi, though Choudhary didn't name him - had not visited or met the people whose houses were burnt.

Choudhary claimed he was not holding a press conference for publicity but out of genuine concern as Dalits were being tortured.

Additional station house officer of Raghopur police station Sudhir Kumar said counter-FIRs had been lodged in connection with the incident which took place on May 28.

"The police have picked up a few suspects for interrogation in connection with the clash and arson. Raids are underway to nab more suspects," Sudhir said.

Earlier, additional superintendent of police of Hajipur, Ajay Kumar, said armed forces had been deployed at the village to avert any untoward incident. The incident was 0the fallout of a dispute over a plot of land.

Additional reporting by Ramashankar