KATHMANDU, SEPTEMBER 3

A Facebook post of Kathmandu Metropolitan City Mayor Balendra Shah last night has left netizens and the government bamboozled.

At around 9:21pm yesterday, Mayor Shah, taking to his official Facebook page, posted, "It is okay for today, but if any vehicle of the KMC is stopped by traffic police in future, I will set Singha Durbar ablaze. Mind it thief government!"

After such a threatening post, a few netizens wondered what could be the reasons behind such an outrageous post. Some asked if he was drunk. But several of them showed support and expressed solidarity with Mayor Shah.

While the status was scrutinised at night, a post appeared on the Facebook page 'Routine of Nepal Banda' early in the morning today which was reposted again with slight change. "Balen Shah's wife Sabeena Kafle gives birth to a baby girl. #Congratulations," reads the post. Again after a few hours, RONB posted with slight change. "Balen Shah and his wife Sabeena Kafle gave birth to a baby girl a few days ago." RONB owner Victor Paudel is very close to KMC Mayor Shah. It has been constantly promoting the activities of KMC.

Following the RONB post, Balen's supporters said that Balen gave such a reaction after his wife was treated badly while she was being rushed to the hospital due to labour pain and was stopped by traffic police and that reaction was just a reflection of anger.

"Last night at around 8:50pm, traffic police were engaged in regular checking of vehicles that were in a queue. One of the vehicles bearing white number plate was also observed in the queue. When police checked the vehicle, it was found that it was KMC's car. Then they checked the documents and left the vehicle in a few minutes," Kathmandu Metropolitan City Traffic Office Spokesperson Rajendra Prasad Bhatta told THT. "Police were just fulfilling their responsibility while on duty.

They didn't know that Mayor Shah's wife was inside the car and she was experiencing labour pain. One can easily verify from Nepal Mediciti Hospital when she was discharged," Spokesperson Bhatta said.

When THT asked Mediciti hospital, it said, "She was admitted in the hospital." But it refused to say anything else regarding the matter.

Mayor Shah's supporters on social media have also commented that Balen's wife Sabeena Kafle was in labour pain and was heading to the hospital for delivery. However, the status of Mayor Balen was posted on RONB. The Facebook page changed the post again after a few hours with the aim of averting negative comments towards Mayor Balen and garnering sympathy.

However, it's true that Mayor Balen's wife Sabeena had given birth to a child a few days ago in Nepal Mediciti Hospital, Lalitpur and she had also been discharged. The newborn baby is undergoing treatment at the hospital.

Mayor Shah's wife Sabeena was returning home at night from the hospital yesterday when traffic police checked the vehicle that Kafle was in.

Meanwhile, today evening, Mayor Shah's personal secretary Bhoop Dev Shah issued a statement claiming that Sabeena Kafle, who was in labour pain yesterday evening, suddenly experienced complications and her health condition was serious. "Therefore, she was rushed to the hospital. Sabeena Kafle went to the hospital using the official vehicle of the KMC," said the secretariat.

The Ministry of Home Affairs allowed the mayor and his spouse to use the vehicle, according to Balen's secretariat.

Furthermore, the secretariat claimed that the traffic police had checked the vehicle in Koteshwor at around 9:00pm while Sabina was returning after health check-up and breastfeeding the baby admitted at the NICU in Nepal Mediciti Hospital.

"After finding the vehicle belonged to KMC, the behaviour of police turned more aggressive. The police held the car on the side of the road for about 7 minutes and asked irrelevant and arbitrary questions without considering the situation," reads the statement issued by Balen's secretariat. "The police opened the door without following the procedure of checking the vehicle. They asked, 'What is it? Where are you?' Sabeena Kafle, a woman in pain on the back seat, was misbehaved with."

Such rude behaviour by the policemen on duty towards a woman who was worried about the health condition of the newborn baby and was undergoing the pain of childbirth is very condemnable and regrettable, according to the statement.

A version of this article appears in the print on September 04, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.