Kathmandu, February 1

Inspector General of Police Prakash Aryal today vowed to initiate legal action against those involved in the January 21 alleged gang rape of a 22-year-old woman in Durbar Marg-based Hotel Landmark.

Speaking at a function organised to inaugurate a new building and barracks of Metropolitan Police Circle, Durbar Marg, where its responsible officials settled the heinous crime of gang rape by reconciling the perpetrators and the victim, IGP Aryal said, “The pride of a woman can never be exchanged for anything and the guilty will be liable to punishment under the existing laws whoever they are.”

IGP Aryal added that he was reported about an ‘ugly act committed from this beautiful building’. He was referring to MPC in-charge DSP Tilak Bharati and litigation officer Inspector Laxman Singh Thakuri who allegedly forced the gang rape victim into reconciling with the rapists ‘by accepting bribe from the perpetrators’ and allowed them to walk free. Nepal Police has already initiated action against DSP Bharati and Inspector Thakuri.

“All police employees should learn a lesson from this incident and improve their conduct to keep themselves away from any anti-police activity in future. Good conduct and selfless service to the people under the existing laws should be the top priority of police personnel to make the functions of the security agency more effective,” he suggested.

Meanwhile, the alleged victim, who had been out of contact since Monday after lodging a verbal complaint of gang rape at Metropolitan Police Range, Kathmandu, has approached the four-member probe panel led by SP Ram Dutta Joshi to record her statement.

A member of the probe panel said she had now changed her statement and claimed that she had ‘a consensual relationship’ with one Shailesh Karki of Ramechhap at the hotel and he was her boyfriend.