Kathmandu, February 11, 2008

The seven-party alliance coordination committee meeting, held today at the Maoists’ central office in Buddhanagar, decided to form a seven member team to hold talks with the agitating Madhesi parties on behalf of the alliance.

They also decided to form an investigation committee to probe into clashes that occurred recently in Darchula, Sindhuli and other parts of the country between the Maoist cadres and other partners of the alliance. The SPA leaders decided to form the investigation panel after cases of clashes occurred between the Maoists and other parties in several parts of the country during political rallies.

The SPA talks team would comprise representatives of the alliance partners with Minister for Peace and Reconstruction Ramchandra Poudel as the coordinator. Members of the talks team include Jhala Nath Khanal of the CPN-UML, Dr Baburam Bhattarai of the CPN-Maoist, Amik Serchan of the Janamorcha Nepal, Sunil Prajapati of the Nepal Workers’ and Peasants’ Party, Sarita Giri of the Nepal Sadbhavana Party (Aandidevi) and Kumar Belbase of the United Left Front.

The SPA investigation committee members include Hikmat Bahadur Bista of the Nepali Congress, Bhanubhakta Jaisi (for western region) and Ramchandra Jha (for eastern region) of the CPN-UML, Narayan Sharma of the CPN-Maoist, Ram Kumar Poudel of the Janamorcha Nepal, Prem Suwal of the NWPP, Ram Babu Singh of the NSP (A) and Dambar Shrestha of the ULF.

The panel would choose its coordinator from among the members, according to SPA leaders. Dr Bhattarai said his party had suggested forming the probe panel.

Who was Kidney Kumar’s accomplice in Chitwan?

Sauraha, February 11, 2008

Eyewitnesses have claimed that the person who was accompanying kidney racket kingpin Dr Amit Kumar and who fled when police reached Hotel Wildlife Resort here in pursuit of Dr Kumar, was none other than Dr Kumar’s brother Jeevan Kumar.

Hotel employee Maheshwar Regmi claimed that after seeing photos of Jeevan along with that of Dr Kumar on the Internet, he was certain that the person who had checked in with Dr Kumar was Jeevan. After police showed photographs of the two, Maheshwar said, “This is the same person who checked in with Dr Kumar.” Regmi said while Dr Kumar could speak only English and Hindi Jeevan could speak Nepali fluently. “When the police came to arrest Dr Kumar last Thursday, Jeevan was still in the hotel between 2.30 and 3 pm,” Maheshwar said.

Posing as Manish Singh, Jeevan had done the booking for Room No. 6, said Maheshwar, adding that after police showed the photos he learnt that Manish and Jeevan were one and the same person.