Speaker Mahara accused of sexually harassing female employee

Published On: October 1, 2019 07:06 AM NPT By: Republica | @RepublicaNepal

KATHMANDU, Oct 1: A female government employee has accused Speaker of the House of Representatives Krishna Bahadur Mahara of sexual harassment, Sunday evening.

The female employee at the Parliament Secretariat accused Speaker Mahara of sexual harassment after reaching her rented apartment at Tinkune, Subidhanagar. A team from Metropolitan Police Circle Office, Baneshwar had also reached the apartment at about 8:45 pm after the victim reported to the police.

Police had found the woman slightly inebriated and complaining of sexual harassment by Mahara. They suggested to her to file a complaint.

“We have asked the victim woman to file a complaint about her situation, saying investigations would proceed further only after the complaint is filed. But no one has come to file a complaint yet. The victim is also not in contact with the police,” a police source told Republica.

Although the police asked her to file a complaint on Sunday evening, the victim has not done so as of Monday evening. The woman claimed that Mahara used to come to her apartment and attempt sexual advances in the past also.

Meanwhile, Speaker Mahara’s secretariat in a statement issued late Monday evening said the reports about his involvement in sexual harassment are baseless. “It cannot even be imagined that the honorable speaker is involved in misbehaving with anyone. I want to inform all media and journalist friends that there is no basis for the attempts that are being made to malign the character of House Speaker Mahara in connection with yesterday’s [Sunday] alleged incident,” a press statement issued by Mahara’s press advisor Dilli Malla said.

The statement said that he had not gone anywhere except the parliament secretariat at noon Sunday and had returned to his official residence in Baluwatar by 2 pm. It also said that broken glasses and an insole allegedly from his shoes that were said to have been found at the rented apartment of female employee did not belong to Mahara.