Patna: Chandeshwar Verma, the husband of social welfare minister Kumari Manju Verma, was in regular touch with Brajesh Thakur, the jailed chief functionary of the NGO that ran the Muzaffarpur shelter home where at least 34 girls were raped, top sources linked to the investigation said on Tuesday.

The sources told The Telegraph they had evidence of conversations between Verma, a former lawmaker, and Thakur. Call detail records of Thakur's cell phone show that he and Verma talked to each other 17 times since January this year. The calls were made till the scandal came to the fore on May 31, the sources said.

Minister Manju Verma was not available for comments. "She (the minister) is not in Patna," said a woman who received the call on the minister's mobile phone number from this newspaper.

Contacted, Muzaffarpur senior superintendent of police Harpreet Kaur said: "Since the case is with the CBI, it will be proper to ask about the CDR (call detail records) from CBI officials."

The role of Chandeshwar Verma came under the scanner after Sibha Kumari, the wife of arrested Muzaffarpur child protection officer Ravi Kumar Raushan, alleged that he (Chandeshwar Verma) frequently visited the Balika Grih shelter home run by Thakur's NGO.

On July 26, the minister had termed the allegations against her husband baseless. She later admitted that her husband had accompanied her once to the shelter home in 2016. But minister Verma denied that her husband thereafter ever visited Balika Grih.

An investigating officer said Thakur's call detail records provided sufficient grounds for the CBI to quiz the minister's husband.