Kathmandu, June 25
Lawmakers have continued quizzing Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa over the death of a leader affiliated to the banned Maoist party led by netra Bikram Chand ‘Biplav’ in Sarlahi district last week.
Whereas some lawmakers suspect Kumar Paudel was killed by police extrajudicially, Thapa has been insisting that he was killed in an encounter when police opened fire for self-defence.
Speaking at the House of Representatives meeting on Tuesday, lawmaker Ram Bahadur Bista ask Minister Thapa why he first said it was an encounter and later accepted a House panel’s directive to probe into the case. He was of the view that the investigation would not be necessary if it was an encounter.
“What is the meaning of this? What is he trying to do here?” said Bista.
Similarly, lawmaker Rameshwar Raya Yadav was also critical of the Home Minister. “Why are laws made if we don’t follow them? The police were wrong to have killed Paudel,” he said adding that the government was taking away a fundamental right from its citizens.
