New Delhi: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar said all those involved in the Muzaffarpur shelter home rape case would not be spared. A day after the Opposition gunned for the Bihar CM’s resignation over the matter during a dharna at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.

 “Neither the culprits nor their accomplices will escape from the clutches of law. They will be put behind bars. I am not going to spare anybody — whoever they may be,” he said while speaking at the launch of a sustainable livelihood project in Patna on Sunday.

Kumar’s statement came on a day the state government suspended six officials of the social welfare department in connection with the rapes. The suspended officials, posted as assistant directors of child protection units in Muzaffarpur, Munger, Araria, Madhubani, Bhagalpur and Bhojpur districts, were charged with “negligence and dereliction of duty”, said an official, adding that more heads are likely to roll as the probe progresses.

Meanwhile, at a press meet in Delhi on Sunday, senior Janata Dal (United) leader KC Tyagi dismissed the Opposition’s attack on Nitish Kumar and said the CM would not resign. He added the party was ready for a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the case.

On the same day, senior BJP leader CP Thakur, while speaking to a regional news channel, called for the resignation of Bihar social welfare minister Kumari Manju Verma. He said Verma, of the JD(U), should take a call on the Opposition’s demand for her resignation keeping in view the “lapses on part of the social welfare department”.

“Manju Verma should resign taking moral responsibility for what happened in the shelter home... and resign,” Thakur said.