Parliamentary committee formed to probe Rukum incident

KATHMANDU: Parliament has formed a special parliamentary committee to investigate the West Rukum incident.

The high-level committee formed by today’s meeting of the House of Representatives is named ‘Chaurjahari Municipality, Soti Incident Investigation Committee’.

Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota said that a nine-member high-level committee headed by a lawmaker of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Devendra Poudel has been formed and mandated to submit the report within a month.

The members of the committee are lawmakers Ekwal Mia, Durga Poudel, Parvati Bisunkhe, Bimala Bishwakarma, Maheshwar Jung Gahatraj, Meen Bishwakarma, Ram Sahay Prasad Yadav and Prakash Rasaili.

Nepali Congress (NC) had earlier demanded a special parliamentary committee to probe the incident.

Some six youths of Jajarkot were killed when 21-year-old Nabaraj BK of Bheri municipality 4, Jajarkot went with 18 other friends to elope his girlfriend, 17, of Chaurjahari-8, Soti on May 23.

They had dived into the Thuli Bheri river when locals of Chaujahari thrashed and chased them away.

The bodies of all of them have been recovered from the river.

Police have charged as many as 20 persons in the case. They have also arrested 18 people, including ward chairman Dammar Bahadur Malla.

The District Court Rukum West has remanded 18 individuals to 10 days in custody for further investigation.

Police on Thursday had produced them at the district seeking an extension of the remand.

They have been accused of attacking youths, including Nawaraj.

Police are yet to nab two more accused. The kin of the victims had filed an FIR against 20 individuals for their alleged involvement in the murder of six people.

Nawaraj BK, Ganesh Budha Magar, Sanju BK, Lokendra Sunar, Govinda Shahi of Bheri municipality, Jajarkot and Tikaram Nepali of Chaurjahari municipality-1, Rukum West had died in the incident on May 23.

On May 25, police had arrested 18 people including the ward chair of Chaurjahari municipality-8 Dammar Bahadur Malla, Nawaraj’s beloved Sushma and her parents.