KATHMANDU, Oct 4: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has formed a team to monitor investigations into the alleged rape charge against disgraced former speaker of the lower house of parliament Krishna Bahadur Mahara.

Issuing a statement on Friday, NHRC spokesperson Bed Prakash Bhattarai said the apex human rights body has set up a three-member panel to monitor the progress of investigation and prepare a report on the various facets of the case.

Bhattarai said that his office was closely following developments following the accusation against Mahara of raping a staffer of the parliament secretariat at her apartment on Sunday evening.

NHRC has also written to the authorities concerned requesting information on the police handling of the case and any initiative taken for the safety of a journalist who has complained of receiving threats after breaking the story in the media.

Editor of the online news website Hamra Kura, Ajaya Babu Shiwakoti, who broke the story, said on Thursday that he was receiving threats on the phone from various unidentified callers.

NHRC has announced the monitoring team at a time when police are struggling to handle the investigations. Two days after accusing Mahara of rape in a video interview with Hamra Kura, the accuser woman on Wednesday filed a written statement with police retracting her rape allegation and instead accusing the media of distorting and misrepresenting what she had said.

Many suspect that the woman might have been coerced into changing her statement. Her retraction and refusal to allow police to conduct forensic tests have thrown the investigations into uncertainty, Hobindra Bogati, spokesperson of Metropolitan Police Range, told Republica on Thursday.

While police appear reluctant to take up the case and cite the lack of a written complaint from the victim, rights groups, legal experts and some individuals in Mahara's own party have said that the investigations shouldn't be aborted as the case was of a criminal nature.

During a meeting with a group of independent civil society members on Friday, NHRC Chairman Anup Raj Sharma said that the complaint that the victim made through the police helpline (emergency number 100) should be considered the first information report (FIR) for purposes of the law.

The rights commission hasn't found the approach of the police to investigations satisfactory. It is keeping in touch with the police, former election commissioner Ila Sharma, who was present at the meeting with civil society members, quoted the NHRC chief as saying in her tweet.

Amid mounting pressure, some NCP leaders, especially those from the erstwhile UML, have been pressing the party leadership to suspend Mahara from membership of both parliamentary and the party. But leaders from the Maoist camp have been resisting such moves, according to sources.

 
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