Dolakha, December 6

Dolakha Chief District Officer Khagendra Rijal, who is facing bribery charges, was recalled to the Ministry of Home Affairs today.

The home ministry had decided to relieve Rijal from his post of CDO after media reported that he had taken bribe of Rs 115,000 from the families of defendants in two cases when he issued a directive to release them on bail.

CDO Rijal had left the district a few hours before the home ministry took the decision to strip him of CDO’s responsibility. Immediately after he was relieved of his post, Rijal was recalled to the ministry.

The district has been without a CDO after Rijal’s recall to the ministry.

After the bribery incident came to light, Nepali Congress aligned Nepal Tarun Dal staged a protest rally today morning and warned that CDO Rijal should leave the district within 24 hours. Locals were mulling over smearing black soot on CDO Rijal following a storm of criticism from people in the district. It has been learnt that Rijal used to threaten government employees and office heads and collect money from them saying that he had served at the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority before he assumed the post of Dolakha CDO.

Bigu Rural Municipality Deputy Chair Sanjeev Oli accused Rijal of taking four lakh rupees from two health workers of the rural municipality. After he came to know about a dispute between two health workers and local women, Rijal collected four lakh rupees from the two employees. He summoned two male employees at the DAO and collected two lakh rupees each, pledging to resolve the dispute.