KATHMANDU, March 1: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli said that late Rabindra Adhikari, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, wasn’t involved in the widebody aircraft scam, and Adhikari, rather had been dragged into a controversy.

Oli said so as the Nepal Communist Party approved the condolence motion to the Air Dynasty accident of February 27 that killed the minister along with six others.

“Some ‘forces’ associated him in the scam to defame him,” Oli said and accused critics of spreading rumours to hide the truth.

Oli said that he had been disheartened to see Adhikari’s name tagged on the widebody aircraft procurement, even when the procurement had happened before him. “I feel sad when laborious and active people are defamed.”  

The prime minister also praised Adhikari’s efforts to bring visible changes in the aviation sector – from opening up airports to initiating night flights in six airports. Oli added that Adhikari himself had volunteered to see the proposed airport location at Chuhan Dada of Therathum after a feasibility report.

It was in the very visit that Adhikari along with six others lost their lives near Pathibhara Temple of the district.  The six others included tourism entrepreneur, Ang Tshiring Sherpa, Birendra Prasad Shrestha, deputy director general of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN); Dhurba Bhochhibhoya, deputy director of CAAN; Yubaraj Dahal, a personal aide to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, and Arjun Kumar Ghimire, a Nepal Army official and pilot Prabhakar KC.  

 
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