Kathmandu, March 12:

Shops at the Bishal Bazaar Supermarket closed down at 5 pm today — two hours before the regular time — to protest against the interference by a Young Communist League (YCL) cadre in a dispute between a shop owner and his former worker, police said.

According to the police, the shopkeepers downed their shutters to protest against the YCL’s move to press one of the shop owners to pay money as demanded by a worker. “Krishna Prasad Khanal, former worker at Stall No 204 owned by Raj Kumar Sarraf, came with a cadre of YCL to demand money as claimed by him and the shop owners protested the move by closing down the shops,” said Basudev Pathak, inspector at the Metropolitan Police Section, Janasewa.

“We brought the YCL cadre, Khanal and Sarraf to the office for talks. We came to know that Khanal has already filed a case against Sarraf at the Labour Court claiming that Sarraf has to pay him Rs 220,000. Sarraf claimed that he had to pay Khanal Rs 40,000 which he has already given,” Pathak said.

“We convinced them that the case should be settled by the court, as a lawsuit has already been filed,” he said.