SHOE EXHIBITION FROM 24 DECEMBER Kathmandu, 21 Dec.: Thee 9th Shoe Industrial Exhibition will be held in the capital 24 December. Fifty companies are participating in the show in the capital. Fifty-five percent of footwear needs are met locally. Nnnn PROBE ESTABLSHES NEPALI WOMAN ROBBED AND ABUSED BY AUIRPORT OFFICIALS Kathmandu, 21 Dec.: A preliminary investigations by a Home Ministry-formed panel into a robbery case at the Tribhuvan International Airport have found the involvement of around a dozen officials, including the director general of the Department of Immigration (DoI), The Kathmandu Post reports.. Sita Rai (name changed), 20, of Bhojpur lodged a complaint on Sunday with the MoHA against Somnath Khanal, a DoI staffer, and police constable Parshuram Basnet, accusing them of robbing her of Rs 218,000 at the airport. Coming across this illiterate migrant worker carrying someone else’s passport, the officials took her to the immigration office at Kalikasthan. There, during interrogations, they robbed her of her cash. Basnet then volunteered to take her to the Bus Park where he allegedly raped her at the Solukhumbu Guest House. One of the prime suspects in the case, Khanal, named the officials in his statement. During interrogations, he admitted to having shared the robbed cash with DoI section officers Ram Prasad Koirala and Tek Raj Pokharel. Upon further investigation, many other officials, including the DG, were found to be involved in the incident. The committee has interrogated all the officials whose names came forward during the investigation, irrespective of the positions they hold. On Wednesday, section officers Koirala and Pokharel denied their involvement in the scandal but the other accused have yet to register their statements. “Most of the officials were found involved in robbing the woman and sharing the loot. We are verifying the information gathered from the police constable, the prime accused in the incident,’’ said a highly placed source. Constable Basnet, who is in custody of the Metropolitan Police Range Hanumandhoka, will be interrogated on Friday. His statement will be key to cross-checking the information acquired so far. “His [Basnet’s] statement will determine who will be subject to punishment,” said the source. According to Navin Kumar Ghimire, secretary at the Ministry of Home Affairs, the investigation panel, led by MoHA Joint-secretary Bhola Siwakoti, will likely submit its report on Friday. nnnn