KATHMANDU, JANUARY 14
Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane today met women activists campaigning for justice for Nirmala Kumri at Maitighar Mandala and requested them in person to quit activism and help the authorities to bring culprits behind bars.
Dozens of women rights activists from Nepalgunj are once again in Kathmandu staging protest for over two weeks for the third time in the past twoand-a-half years to pressure the government to find those who abducted and murdered Nirmala Kurmi.
Nirmala was widowed in 2005 and was last seen in 2012 when she was 52 years old after her two sons died under mysterious circumstances in a span of 10 days in 2010. Activists claim that she and her family were framed and murdered by powerful locals and land mafia to grab nearly 16,000 square metres (125 kattha) land she owned.
Minister Lamichhane, who had once vehemently spoken demanding justice for Nirmala when he was a journalist, reminded the activists of the same and asked them to quit the protest, assuring them that the authority had been working on the case.
"Minister Lamichhane asked the activists not to spend their time on roadsides in the chilly Kathmandu night and assured them that he was equally sincere about providing justice to Nirmala as they were," Nava Raj Pandey, the minister's media coordinator told THT.
However, this is not the first time Minister Lamichhane has asked the activists to quit the protest. Earlier on January 8, he had called the activists and vowed to start a fresh investigation into the case.
Today, Minister Lamichhane also told the activists that he himself had got the detail information of the case and asked police headquarters to start the investigation.
In line with this, police headquarters has also formed a team under the Central Investigation Bureau to investigate the case.
The protesters have accused Nepali Congress leader and provincial lawmaker Badshah Kurmi of being the main person behind the abduction and murder of Kurmi with the motive of gaining her property.
Police have so far arrested and interrogated seven person on the basis of a report submitted by the government's probe committee.
However, they were released shortly as they were not believed to be connected with the case. The main accused Badshah was never arrested. He is now a Province Assembly member from the area.
A version of this article appears in the print on January 15, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
