Lawmakers rap Mahara for failing to nab Basnet

KATHMANDU, June 20: Lawmakers have criticized Home Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara for failing to arrest Parshuram Basnet, who is accused of masterminding attack on journalist Khilanath Dhakal, even two weeks after the incident.



Arjun Joshi of Nepali Congress (NC), Chitra Bahadur KC of Rastriya Janamorcha, Sabitra Bhusal and Thammaya Thapamagar of CPN-UML, Hariraj Limbu of UCPN (Maoist) and Radha Timilsina of CPN (Ekikrit) at the meeting of the parliament´s State Affairs Committee (SAC) termed it as the government´s inefficiency.[break]



The lawmakers urged Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara, who was present at the meeting, to arrest Basnet immediately.



"We heard that even the home minister sought support from the prime minister to arrest Basnet," Joshi said at the SAC meeting Monday. "What is the point in having home ministry if it can´t arrest a man involved in attacking a journalist?"



KC said the incident had exposed the home ministry´s utter inefficiency as police couldn´t arrest Basnet even after Mahesh Basnet of the ruling CPN-UML claimed that the former was in contact with him and challenged the government to arrest him.

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