Agitating journalists called the eastern region-level meeting, attended by Home Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara, ´useless´ in light of police force´s inaction in nabbing Basnet. [break]
While police have arrested Rohit Koirala and Manoj Rai, who were directly involved in attacking Dhakal apparently at the behest of Basnet, the YF leader is still absconding despite Mahara´s repeated commitments in public to bring him to book.
Journalists called the review meeting an act of hypocrisy, organized to overshadow police administration´s sheer incapability. “It is ridiculous,” said Mohan Kaji Neupane, eastern regional coordinator of Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ). “The home ministry has failed to fulfill its responsibility (of nabbing the guilty) even as journalists stirred for 24 days.”
Dhakal was brutally beaten early this month by a gang of inebriated hooligans mobilized by Basnet who was apparently irked by a news story published in Republica daily, which exposed his sordid past. Trade union leaders, literary figures and common people also joined journalists´ sit-in. The sit-in was held on the streets just outside the office of Morang Industry Association, where the meeting took place.
Meanwhile, the hearings on the charges labeled against Basnet, Koirala and Rai will be held on Sunday next week. The office of district attorney, after carefully studying the charge-sheet prepared by police, will register a case at Morang District Court on Thursday. After taking statements from Koirala and Rai, the court will hold hearing on the case Sunday.
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