Kathmandu, January 2:

A probe panel set up by the government to look into the Nagarkot massacre submitted its report to the vice-chairman of the council of ministers, Dr Tulsi Giri, today.

“The committee submitted its report to Dr Giri in the office of the ministerial council in Singha Durbar today,” a government official said. Chairman of the probe committee and a former judge of the Supreme Court, Top Bahadur Singh, confirmed that the report was submitted today. He, however, refused to divulge the details.

The government had formed the three-member panel that also included Attorney General Prem Bahadur Bista and the sitting deputy Attorney General Dorna Raj Regmi to investigate the incident on December 15 when an RNA soldier Bashudev Thapa killed 12 civilians at Chihandanda at Nagarkot before he allegedly shot himself. Although the probe committee was initially given five days to complete its investigation, the government had given the panel 10 additional days. The extended time expired yesterday.

A Royal Nepalese Army pannel probing the same incident has already submitted its report to the Legal Department of the army. The Legal Department’s Chief, Brigadier General BA Kumar Sharma, is studying the report before he forwards it to the higher authority in the RNA headquarters.