Ranchi, Oct. 9: As the government chose to remain tightlipped on urban development minister Bachcha Singh’s alleged involvement in shielding the accused in the Pramod Singh murder case, Speaker Inder Singh Namdhari today appealed to legislators “not to strip each other in public”.

The issue came up today through an adjournment motion — disallowed by the Chair — proposed by CPI(M-L) member Mahendra Prasad Singh and others. The CPI(M-L) leader had yesterday raised the murder during Zero Hour but the Speaker had not permitted any discussion or a government statement on it.

Namdhari today allowed Mahendra Singh to narrate, in a nutshell, the gist of what he wanted to say. The member asked the government to spell out its stand because one its senior minister’s name figured in the FIR, whereby Bachcha Singh had allegedly prevented police officials from performing their duty.

Leader of the Opposition Stephen Marandi demanded a statement from chief minister Arjun Munda. “The House has a right to know whether there is an FIR against the minister. If the minister is not involved, the government should not run away from speaking on the issue. The government’s attitude has raised doubts in people’s minds,” he said.

Other members on the Opposition benches joined in and asked for a statement from the government. But the chief minister, who kept sitting in the House, did not utter a word, prompting Arup Chatterjee of the Marxist Coordination Committee to allege that the government was trying to “shield” the culprits.

Namdhari said the House should leave it to the government’s “conscience” because the treasury benches could not be compelled to speak on an issue they did not wish to. Citing the example of neighbouring Chhattisgarh, where its chief minister Ajit Jogi has been chargesheeted by the CBI in a forgery case, the Speaker said: “Jogi’s name has figured in an FIR but the Congress high command has refused to remove him. Can anyone do anything about it? It is better to leave the matter to the government’s conscience.”

Launching the defence of the NDA government, C.P. Singh (BJP) said the House should call for details of all criminal cases pending against any member, irrespective of political affiliation, and then order an inquiry, if the need arose. This infuriated the Opposition members and Rajendra Prasad Singh (Congress) objected to Jogi’s name being raised on the floor.

As the House adjourned for lunch, Opposition members told The Telegraph that the government was scared to make a statement because its survival depended on the Samata Party’s support. So far, Samata minister Ramchandra Kesri has come out openly in support of Bachcha Singh but the three other ministers from the party have been avoiding comments.

A legislator from the Dhanbad region said: “The wrongdoing of the Singh family is no secret. There is tremendous political pressure on the district police to shove the matter under the carpet. The murky coal business is at the root of the murder.”