Rautahat, November 12

An eyewitness of Rautahat’s Rajpur bomb blast today alleged that he was held captive by aides of suspended Nepali Congress lawmaker Mohammad Aftab Alam and was forced to change his statement before Rautahat District Court.

Gaurishankar Chamar of Musachowk, Bairgania, Sitamarhi district in Bihar, reached the district court with an application to change his statement yesterday while the trial hearing in the case of Alam was underway. In the application, Chamar claimed he was injured in stove blast, not bomb blast.

Chamar, who had appeared before the court with a hostile application yesterday, however, claimed today that he was held captive for four days and forced to change his statement by Alam’s aides.  Chamar is an eyewitness of the explosion that allegedly led Alam to dump those injured and killed in the blast in a brick kiln on the eve of the first Constituent Assembly polls.

Chamar alleged that Alam’s men abducted him from his home and held him captive for four days. He was made to sign some documents after which he was taken in a jeep to Patel Chowk in Bairgania, Sitamarhi, yesterday. He claimed that he was then taken on a motorbike to Alam’s home before being dropped near the district court at around 1:00 pm yesterday.

Chamar said he saw police near the court and complained to Deputy Superintendent of Police Nabin Karki about his ordeal. He alleged the application he wished to register with the court was signed by him under duress. “Alam’s aides promised to give me as much money as I asked for if I helped Alam in this case,” Chamar alleged.