Rautahat, April 6
Though the law of the land clearly criminalises use of proxies to give examinations except in special circumstances, police in Rautahat are yet to book Devahi Gonahi Municipality mayor, who got a proxy to appear for his Secondary Education Exam.
The police's dilly-dallying has got the people talking.
Devahi Gonahi Municipality Mayor Premlal Sah Kanu was elected to the post from CPN-UML in the local election held last year. It was revealed that he had used a proxy to attend the ongoing SEE.
An exam monitoring team led by administrative Officer Manibhushan Sah of the district administration office arrested the mayor's son-in-law Kamal Sah for sitting in the exam hall on the mayor's behalf from Maulapur Municipality-based Shree Laxmaniya Exam Centre on Sunday. Sah is an engineer at Radio Nepal's Bardibas branch office.
According to Education Act 1971, both the fake examinee and the person using the proxy are guilty and can besubjected to fine upto Rs 100,000 and prison sentence up to six months. But, interestingly, though police have detained the fake examinee and are investigating the case, they are yet to arrest the mayor, who, according to the law, is equally guilty.
As per sources, there is huge pressure from political leadership - both ruling and opposition - and other influential elite class to spare the mayor.
This has also been a popular topic of public talk and social media posts of late. "At a time when the proxy has confessed everything, I can't understand why the police are dithering from detaining the man who employed the proxy just like any other normal person committing an illegal act," said Bikas Patel, a local of Dewahi Gonahi.
On his part, SP Bir Bahadur Budha Magar said investigation into the case was under way.
"We've detained the fake examinee and are investigating the mayor who employed the proxy to sit for his exam.
We will detain him with the court's arrest warrant once we collect enough evidence," he said.
A version of this article appears in the print on April 7, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
