A Rashtriya Janata Dal MLC accused in a kidnapping case was sworn in as law minister of Bihar on the very day he was to surrender on court orders.

Kartik Kumar, accused of kidnapping builder Rajiv Ranjan in 2014, took oath of office on August 16, the day a court in Patna’s Danapur had directed him to surrender before it in a warrant issued on July 14.

Kartik, booked under Indian Penal Code Sections 363 (kidnapping), 364 (kidnapping with the intent of murder) and 365 (kidnapping or abduction with the intent of secretly and wrongfully confining a person), is widely believed to be the right-hand man of gangster and former RJD MLA Anant Singh alias Chhote Sarkar, who is in jail in connection with murder, kidnapping and extortion cases.

Leaders of the Grand Alliance appeared embarrassed by the revelation. “I do not know. I had no knowledge about this,” chief minister and JDU leader Nitish Kumar said on Wednesday.

Kartik, 53, told reporters: “I am innocent. The matter is in court and I had mentioned the case in my election affidavit.”

“Kartik had moved Patna High Court in 2017 seeking anticipatory bail, but the appeal was rejected. He then moved the high court again to get the case against him quashed, but the plea was dismissed on July 7, 2022,” Ranjan’s lawyer Amar Jyoti Sharma said. The lawyer added that the Danapur court “issued an arrest warrant against Kartik on July 14 this year. He has neither been arrested, nor has he surrendered. In a way, he is an absconder. I will not go into the constitutional validity of his appointment as a minister, but morally and ethically it is not a correct thing to do.”According to his election affidavit, Kartik has four cases pending against him in different police stations in Patna district. Union power minister and BJP leader R.K. Singh said: “Jungle raj has started again in Bihar. An absconder in a kidnapping case has been appointed law minister. We cannot believe that the chief minister did not know anything about this.”