In a significant development, RJD’s Kartik Kumar, who was given the law portfolio earlier in the month, was shifted to the sugarcane department amid the ongoing row over his alleged involvement in a criminal case.
Shamim Ahmad, also an RJD leader, replaced Kumar as the law minister, a notification issued by the state Cabinet Secretariat Department said. Ahmad held the sugarcane portfolio before his elevation.
The opposition BJP had been demanding Kumar’s removal from the cabinet, alleging that an arrest warrant was pending against him in a 2014 kidnapping case.
The Congress and CPI-ML (Liberation), constituents of the ruling Grand Alliance, had also asked the Nitish Kumar government to reconsider the decision of inducting Kartik Kumar into the cabinet.
