Members of the Opposition stage a protest outside the Legislative Council on Monday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

RJD members in the Assembly on Monday tried to pin down the government over the recent gang rape in a Shastrinagar apartment, accusing it of shielding a legislator’s son.

The RJD MLAs trooped into the well of the House during the post-lunch session and demanded that the Speaker direct the government to conduct an impartial probe into the matter. “We are boycotting the House and will continue to do so until you issue an appropriate direction to the government,” RJD MLA Bhai Birendar told the Speaker Uday Narain Choudhary.

As the RJD members staged a walkout, deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi charged the Opposition party with levelling baseless charges. “The government is not protecting anyone,” he said.

The issue cropped up when the House, during the pre-lunch session, took up an adjournment notice on the gang rape moved by RJD MLAs as a call attention notice during zero hour. Water resources minister Vijay Choudhary told the House on the government’s behalf that the victim had initially named four persons in an FIR. “She later named seven persons in a statement given under Section 164 of IPC,” Choudhary said, adding that police had carried out its probe on the basis of the victim’s statement.

“During the course of investigation, the victim had said she was misled as far as the names of two of the accused were concerned,” the minister said. He added that the government was committed to getting all the accused convicted through speedy trial.

RJD MLA Samrath Choudhary, however, stressed two of the accused were still not arrested. “What is shameful is the fact that the police had initially refused to take action initially on the ground that no FIR was lodged. The police are supposed to take suo moto action in such incidents,” he said, wondering why the police had not taken action on the owner of the vehicle that was used to take the victim to the apartment. The minister said the vehicle was registered in Karnataka and the police were in the process of getting facts about its ownership. The RJD MLA alleged that the matter was a disgrace and a legislator had to file defamation against a portal. The RJD MLAs then staged a noisy walkout.

Later, the RJD MLAs issued a letter to the DGP asking for an explanation on the delay of the police action. They pointed out that the crime was committed on June 14 and a local news channel showed footage of the incident on July 12. They alleged that then city superintendent of police Kim had obtained the CD of the incident but took no action.

Urdu teacher heat

Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council Gulam Gaus on Monday slammed the Bihar government for its alleged failure to appoint Urdu teachers in state-run schools.

“While the government has initiated the process of hiring 1.75 lakh teachers across the state on a contractual basis, they do not intend to hire Urdu teachers. Though they advertised for Urdu teachers , they are not seeking status and vacancy reports of Urdu teachers from districts like they are doing for other subjects,” Gaus said.