SP Bista, Inspector Bhatta furnish clarifications

  • MoHA officials have been examining clarification letters

Kathmandu, October 24

Nepal Police Headquarters today forwarded the clarifications furnished by suspended Superintendent of Police Dilliraj Bista and Inspector Jagadish Bhatta to the Ministry of Home Affairs over the charges levelled against them.

Senior Superintendent of Police Uttam Raj Subedi, Nepal Police spokesperson, told The Himalayan Times that the legal section of NP Headquarters had handed over the clarifications to the line ministry as ‘they were’. NP Headquarters is not allowed to go through the contents of clarifications addressed to the Home Secretary.

The MoHA had, on Sunday, sent letters to SP Bista and Inspector Bhatta through NP headquarters seeking clarifications from the duo why they should not be dismissed from police service for their negligence in criminal probe and failure to bring to book culprit(s) involved in the rape and murder of Nirmala Panta.

Inspector Bhatta received the letter on Monday and registered his clarification with the law section of NP headquarters yesterday within the deadline.

SP Bista, however, received the MoHA letter yesterday at around 11:30am citing ‘personal reasons’ and submitted his clarification to the law section today within 24 hours from the time of receipt of the letter, said SSP Subedi.

A MoHA source said Home Secretary Prem Kumar Rai and other officials had been meticulously examining the contents of the clarifications and were in the process of seeking clarification for the second or the last time in accordance with the Police Regulation as the first clarifications were not ‘convincing or satisfactory’. He did not say when Bista and Bhatta would be asked for clarifications again, though.

Inspector General of Police Sarbendra Khanal, had, on October 15, written to the line ministry, recommending that SP Bista and Inspector Bhatta be dismissed as per Rule 113(a) of the Regulation for botching up the criminal investigation of Nirmala’s rape and murder in Bhimdatta Municipality, Kanchanpur district.

The recommendation was based on the report of the high-level investigation committee led by Joint secretary Hari Prasad Mainali, inquiry conducted by IGP Khanal and prima facie evidences. SP Bista was Kanchanpur district police chief and Inspector Bhatta headed Mahendranar police unit when Nirmala was raped and murdered on July 26.

READ ALSO: