Nepal

Kathmandu, October 1

Metropolitan Police Office has in place security plan to ensure safety of lives and property during Dashain.

Senior Superintendent of Police Shyam Lal Gyawali said security arrangements focused on preventing any untowardincidents and helping people head to their destinations without any fear. All police units have been directed to implement the security plan from their respective places. These security arrangements range from the use of sniffer dogs to patrolling. &The MPO will extend all necessary support to all metropolitan police ranges to combat crimes,& he said. SSP Gyawali said over 6,500 police personnel, both in uniform and civvies, will be deployed in the valley. Incidents of theft, rape, human trafficking, pick-pocketing, drugging and robbing, gambling, gang fight and black marketing are among the crimes thatare likely to increase during the festive season.

According to MPO, security personnel will be deployed for foot, cycle, motorcycle and vehicle patrolling; seal and search and cordon and search. Police have also stepped up security checks at major junctions and the outskirts of the city. The strategy divides the work areas of police into various groups such as temple security, food monitoring, checking import and illicit use of fire crackers, lottery scams and trafficking of small arms. Major market areas of Kalanki, Thapathali, Bagbazar, Bhrikutimandap, Gaushala, Chabahil, Koteshwor, Gongabu, Balaju, Teku, Tripureshwor and Maharajgunj, where the trade of goats takes place during Dashain, are also under police vigilance.

Number of quick response teams, mobile units and reserve units has also been be increased.

During Dashain, almost half of the valleytotal population of around four million leave for their respective home districts. The thieves target unattended houses during the festival. SSP Gyawali said security personnel had been keeping an eye on the movement of VIPs, vital installations, government offices and financial institutions.

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Kathmandu, October 2

Police today claimed that they were conducting an independent, transparent and rigorous investigation into the alleged rape of Roshani Shahi, an employee at the Parliament Secretariat, by Krishna Bahadur Mahara, who resigned yesterday as the speaker.

Senior Superintendent of Police Shyam Lal Gyawali, spokesperson for Metropolitan Police Office, said the incident had been a subject of criminal investigation from the day it happened despite the victimrefusal to file an FIR and her volte-face from an interview she had earlier given to a news website. &We are treating the investigation as a fact-finding mission with optimum neutrality and fairness,& he told THT.

SSP Gyawali added that police had collected necessary evidences from the ‘crime scene& in addition to call detail records of Mahara and Shahi, as well as chat history on Viber and other social media. &Refusal to lodge rape FIR by a victim cannot be a reason to halt the investigation. Whether police will arrest the suspect or not depends on investigation findings,& he said.

He, however, acknowledged that had Shahi lodged an FIR it would have facilitated the probe. A police source said initial statement given by Shahi at the crime scene would be taken as the basis of investigation, regardless of her U-turn and calling Mahara ‘a fatherly figure&.

Shahi, who openly accused Mahara of raping her on the day of ‘crime&, turned hostile yesterday.

However, multiple circumstantial evidences might be enough to drag Mahara to the court, the source said.

When asked whether police faced any political pressure to save Mahara, the source said, &Nepal Police always performs its duties and responsibilities in accordance with laws. There is no political pressure either to protect or indict Mahara, as Nepal Police can exercise its jurisdiction independently,& the source added.

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Kathmandu, October 1

Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara, who resigned from his post today after being accused of rape, had courted controversies earlier as well.

He landed in controversy during his stint as minister of information and communications in 2007 in the interim government formed after the popular movement of 2006. He was accused of selling telecom frequency for peanuts to Nepal Satellite Telecom promoted by businessman Ajeya Raj Sumargi. In its probe, the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee found corruption worth crores of rupees.

Mahara has also been accused of misappropriating more than Rs 400 million in funds meant for maintenance of former Maoist combatants who were kept in cantonments. He had received the amount released by the government over a period of nine months, beginning in April 2007.

He also landed in controversy after a recording of his phone conversation with a Chinese national was leaked in 2010. Mahara was heard demanding Rs 500 million for horse trading before the prime ministerial election. Mahara had claimed the recording was fake.

In 2016, the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority had initiated probe against Mahara for accumulating assets disproportionate to his know sources of income.

Mahara hails from Rolpa district, a Maoist stronghold. He was elected from DangConstituency No 2 in the last parliamentary election. A former school teacher, Mahara also won in the first and second Constituent Assembly elections held in 2008 and 2013.

He became Cabinet minister several times after the popular movement of 2006. He was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time in the 1991 general election.

He was appointed interim lawmaker after the 2006 popular movement and became minister of information and communications in the government led by the late NC president Girija Prasad Koirala immediately after the popular movement. He got the same portfolio in the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led government after the first CA election.

Mahara was home minister in the Jhalanath Khanal-led government.

He was appointed deputy prime minister and finance minister in the Dahal-led government formed in August 2016.

He became DPM and foreign affairs minister in the Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government. Mahara, who went into hiding after the CPN-MC laun-ched a guerilla war in 1996, was the partykey negotiator during the conflict.

• UPDATED: NCP (NCP) Secretariat decides on Speakerresignation

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