'I spy' game over, cops arrest Kamal Thapa, refuses to testify, released again

Kantipur Report


KATHMANDU, Jan 13 - Former home minister of the ex-royal government, Kamal Thapa, Saturday refused to testify to the Parliamentary Secretariat on the Nagarkot and Belbari massacres after being arrested by the police earlier today.

Thapa's arrest came a day after the Parliamentary Probe Committee formed to investigate the Nagarkot and Belbari massacres held a meeting to hammer out a new strategy to record Thapa's statement following his refusal to testify before the committee despite being repeatedly summoned.

Eleven civilians were killed when a Nepalese Army soldier opened indiscriminate fire at people during a local fair in Nagarkot a year ago. The soldier later allegedly killed himself.

Likewise, seven civilians were killed when soldiers opened fire at a crowd protesting the rape and murder of a girl in Belbari in the eastern district of Morang last April.

However, Thapa refused to record his statement this evening as well. "I am right now in a state of detention. So, in a state of detention, I cannot provide any kind of information. If they (probe committee members) want any information from me, I must be released first and then if the Parliamentary Secretariat or the probe committee summons me, I am ready to assist."

The parliamentary secretariat had dispatched a letter to the Home Ministry after Thapa snubbed earlier writs on three different occasions.

Thapa has been taken to the Parliamentary Secretariat inside the Singha Durbar.

Meanwhile, the former home minister has maintained that he did not heed the summons since the ward police office and not the Parliamentary Secretariat had earlier summoned him. But the committee said that everyone was summoned through the Home Ministry.

Thapa was later released from the Parliamentary Secretariat after three hours in detention.