Bihar minister Kartik Kumar, accused in kidnapping case, resigns amid protests

Patna: Bihar minister Kartik Kumar, who is an accused in a 2014 kidnapping case, resigned on Wednesday night amid protests by the opposition, officials said.

Kartik Kumar, an RJD MLC, became the state’s law minister in the new Nitish Kumar government. He resigned hours after being moved to the lesser significant Sugarcane Department.

The resignation has been accepted and forwarded to the governor, said a statement from the Chief Minister’s Office.

Revenue and Land Reforms Minister Alok Kumar Mehta has been given the additional charge of the Sugarcane Department, officials said. Kartik Kumar was believed to have been chosen by his party RJD as part of Tejashwi Yadav‘s outreach towards Bhumihars, a politically powerful upper caste largely sympathetic towards the BJP.

The BJP, which lost power in the upheaval the state witnessed earlier this month, raised hell over Kartik Kumar’s induction despite his name figuring in the 2014 abduction case.