CUSTODY

CHARI SENT TO POLICE CUSTODY
Kahthmandu, 29 July: Dinesh Adhikari Chari was remandedt by The
Kathmandu District Court Sunday to five-day po9lice custory.
He was arrested during the weekend to investigate possible involvement in
several criminal activities.
He’s closely liked with UML whih closed down Dhading from where he hails.
The strike was withdrawn on local protests Sunday.
He was arrested with a pistol.
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HIGH SECURITY FOR ELECTIONS ORDERED

Kathmandu, 29 July: With just 114 days left until the Constituent Assembly election day, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) is yet to unveil its much-awaited poll security plan, AMkit Adhikary writes in The Kathmandu Post..
A directive calling on all security agencies to start preparations for the upcoming elections has already been issued by the ministry. Officials say the election security plan is still in its final stage. MoHA Joint-secretary and spokesperson Shankar Prasad Koirala said the concerned MoHA departments have already been directed to finalise the security plan at the earliest.
“The government is confident about holding the election in a free and fair manner,” said Koirala, adding that the ministry is in frequent consultations with security forces concerning their homework for providing poll security in various phases.
The MoHA’s security plan is an elaborate outline of the overall security system that makes a work division between the Nepal Police (NP) and the Armed Police Force (APF). The work division between the NP and the APF will focus on a number of parameters that include security in polling stations, periphery of polling stations and booth as well as deployment of patrol units, among others. The document will also determine security -sensitivity of various districts based on their vulnerability to violence from anti-election forces. In the 2008 CA elections, out of the total 9,824 polling stations, 1,635 were categorised as highly sensitive and 3,556 as sensitive. The polling stations in the districts, including Bardiya, Dhanusa, Siraha, Saptari, Sarlahi, Tanahun, Baglung, Rolpa, Rukum, Salyan and Kathmandu were categorised as highly sensitive.
The Home Ministry, meanwhile, has formed a central level elections cell comprising representatives from the ministry, NP, APF and the Election Commission (EC). The cell makes a weekly assessment of security situations at districts as reported by the respective security agencies. “This is a bid to stay in loop with the security circumstances at the districts,” Koirala said.
Police spokesperson DIG Nawa Raj Silwal said preparations are underway in line with the ministry directives. According to him, around 54,000 personnel—around 80 percent of the NP’s existing 67,181 strength—will be deployed during the election. The remaining 20 percent personnel will remain at various police units for regular duties. An additional force of 22,000 will be deployed also from the APF.
The security agencies have proposed hiring at least 30,000 Myadi police (temporary police personnel) for election security as the number of personnel to be deployed from the existing force will be insufficient.
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DALIT COMMISSION CHARGES POLITICAL PROTECTION
Kathmandu, 29 July: The National Dalit Commission (NDC), at a press meet here on Sunday, said that the Belbari incident was being politicised, as a result of which, the Commission refused to release an investigation report until at least Tuesday, Weena Pun writes in The Kathmandu Post..
A four-member NDC team had left for Belbari, Morang, on Wednesday where a mob attacked 30-year-old Maya Sarki (erroneously reported to be 23 years old earlier) and a local journalist Manoj Bishwokarma two days earlier. The attack was in response to a complaint of attempted rape Sarki filed with the local police against a local resident, Jeevan Bhetwal.
In an interview with the Post, Member Secretary of the Commission Bhuwan Sunar accused Bimalendra Nidhi, the Central Committee member of the Nepali Congress, of meddling with the investigations.
“Nidhi has been siding with Bhetwal and saying that he isn’t the man who tried to rape Sarki. Finding out the truth and serving justice is the task of the police and the local administration, both of which are sleeping on their jobs,” said Sunar.
Sunar’s claim follows a statement from the Nepali Congress, the only major party which has issued a press statement on the Belbari incident, calling on the government for fair investigations and action against the guilty. Sunar said while “some people in the NC were drumming up” support for Bhetwal, other parties were painfully quiet on the issue. “What we are scared of is that eventually the local intellectuals will decide the best for themselves and the parties they belong to, and will force reconciliation, just like they did with the Rautahat incident,” he said. Sunar was the fourth member of a probe team formed by the government to investigate the Rautahat incident where a non- Dalit community attacked a Dalit community on June 7 after a Dalit couple tried to get married at a local temple.
Nidhi, who was in Belbari on Friday, however, denied the accusations levelled against him, saying both he and his party are very much on the side of Sarki and Bishworkarma. “I was in Belbari with the Congress’s Dalit wing. We all want the guilty to be punished after a fair investigation into the case,” he said.
In order to investigate any political intervention, a team, led by Sushila Shripali, the NDC chairperson, left for Belbari on Sunday.
Secretary General of the Dalit NGO Federation Jas Bahadur Bishwokarma, who is leaving for Belbari to attend the local-level Dalit Civil Society programme, said he would look into the ‘political intervention’ matter. The programme intends to warn locals against further victimisation of Sarki, said Bishwokarma.

Victims file police complaint
BIRATNAGAR

Victims of Monday’s assault in Belbari VDC-3 in Morang have lodged a complaint against the guilty on three different charges. Police said the complaint names seven people as the main accused and that they have been charged with public offence, caste-based discrimination and rape. Jeevan Bhetwal, Amit Bhetwal, Sabita Bhetwal, Chandrakala Bhetwal, Ambika Bhetwal and Kamala Bhetwal are in custody, while the seventh accused, Kabindra Prasain, is at large.
Two local journalists and a technician of the local Radio Betana were also named as culprits, police said. Journalists Bhojraj Basnet and Narendra Basnet, affiliated with the local Samyantra weekly and Radio Betana and the technician have been accused of filming the incident and uploading photos of the victims in the Internet. Maya Sarki and Manoj Bishwokarma were assaulted and paraded with soot smeared on their faces and shoe garlands around their necks in Belbari last week.

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