Bihar’s social welfare minister Manju Verma, 48, who found herself at the centre of controversy as her husband is believed to have links with Muzaffarpur shelter home, resigned on Wednesday.

According to media reports, she met Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar earlier in the day before tendering her resignation.

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Verma’s husband has been accused of having links with the main accused in the Bihar shelter home horror case, Brajesh Thakur.

At the shelter home in Muzaffarpur, 34 girls – aged seven to fourteen – were allegedly drugged, raped, forced to sleep naked and scalded with boiling water. Some of the girls were also forced to undergo abortion.

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Earlier on Wednesday, Brajesh Thakur, who is in jail, denied any involvement in the sexual harassment of 34 minor girls in the welfare facility, saying he was being framed.

He said it was a “conspiracy” and he had no relation with Bihar Social Welfare Minister Manju Verma, claiming he was innocent.

“A conspiracy was hatched against me as I wanted to join the Congress and wished to fight from the Muzaffarpur seat,” Thakur told the reporters when he along with the other accused in the case was being taken from the jail to be produced in a court.

This was the first time Thakur has spoken since the horror surfaced in the shelter home that was run by him.

He was produced in the district court under tight security. “I am not at all involved in the case,” he said.

A group of women blackened Thakur’s face when he was coming out of the court. One of the women was detained. She belongs to the Jan Adhikar Party, a police officer said.

Thakur also denied reports that he was close to Manju Verma. “I have no relationship with Manju Verma,” he said.

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He also refuted a relationship with Madhu Kumar, an accused in the case, who is absconding after the police filed an FIR.

The Patna High Court is monitoring the ongoing CBI investigation into the case.

The Muzaffarpur case came to light when the Bihar Social Welfare Department filed an FIR based on a social audit of the shelter home conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

(With agency inputs)