Maoists honour murder-accused with CC membership

In what appears to be a resounding slap to calls for end to culture of impunity in the country, the ruling Unified CPN (Maoist) has awarded Kali Bahadur Kham 'Bibidh', the main accused in the murder of restaurateur and party sympathiser Ram Hari Shrestha, with a berth on its Central Committee (CC), myrepublica.com reported.

The news portal quoted an unnamed Maoist source as saying that the Maoists withdrew all disciplinary action against Kham and included him in the expanded Central Committee of the party under its recent initiative to forge party unity with the Communist Party of Nepal (Unity Center-Masal).

Kham, a People's Liberation Army (PLA) commander at Shaktikhor cantonment, has been absconding since he was charged of subsequently murdering Shrestha after abducting him in May 2008.

However, a formal announcement of the inclusion of Kham in the 175 member Central Committee formed after the Maoist's unification with Masal is yet to be made.

Senior Maoist leader C.P Gajurel confirmed Kham's inclusion in the expanded CC adding that Kham got into the new committee "by virtue of his membership in the party's CC in 2005."

"Reinstating party´s CC members is one thing and the party´s disciplinary action against Kham is quite another," Gajurel told the newsportal, defending Kham's controversial inclusion in the Central Committee