A group of journalists expressed strong dissatisfaction with Gautam saying he didn´t cooperate with them in arresting those involved in journalist Dekendra Thapa´s murder. [break]
Following exhumation of the site where Dekendra was buried, a group of journalists had met Gautam in person on August 28, 2008 when he was home minister and requested him to order an investigation.
The journalists met Gautam separately in a hotel just ahead of the mass gathering and accused him of trying to protect the murderers when he was the home minister. They told him that there is no point in addressing the mass gathering.
"I had directed the concerned agencies to take action but they disobeyed me. I admit there had been some weaknesses," conceded Gautam. "You can handcuff me if you think that my actions at the time had contributed to promoting impunity."
He argued that his initiatives were futile as UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal was the prime minister. Irate journalists said Gautam had no moral grounds to visit Dailekh to raise the issue of Dekendra´s killing.
"When Gautam was home minister, we had repeatedly pressed him to take initiatives to probe into the case but our pressure didn´t work," said Bishnu Sharma, former chairman of Dailekh chapter of the Federation of Nepali Journalists.
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