Patna, May 26 (IANS) Bihar legislator Ramadhar Singh Thursday surrendered in a court that had declared him absconder 16 years ago for refusing to appear before it in a case related to an alleged inflammatory speech after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992.

 
 The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator had been forced to resign as state cooperative minister last week.
 
 "The former Bihar minister surrendered in the court, " police said in Aurangabad, about 140 km from here.
 
 Last week, soon after his resignation, the Patna High Court had directed him to surrender in the lower court.
 
 Ramadhar Singh had been absconding even after a non-bailable warrant had been issued issued against him in 1995 for allegedly making an inflammatory speech against the minority community after the 1992 demolition of the Babri mosque, police said.
 
 He had said after his resignation that he was stepping down to save the image of the  Nitish Kumar government.