Speaker suggests to UML to make Karki resign

KATHMANDU, Aug 31: Speaker Subas Nembang has suggested to CPN-UML leaders to ask the party´s lawmaker Dol Bahadur (DB) Karki, who has been accused of accepting bribe, to resign from the post.



The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) that arrested him on Monday evening has claimed that its team nabbed Karki red-handed while he was accepting a sum of Rs 100,000 from a youth. The CIAA team has claimed that Karki had assured the youth the job of a police inspector. [break]



Nembang suggested UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal to press Karki to tender his resignation after the former receives a letter from the CIAA.



“Making Karki quit the post before starting the legal battle will be the wisest move,” sources quoted Nembang as telling Khanal and UML Chief Whip Bhim Acharya, among others. According to sources, Khanal, who is also the party´s parliamentary party leader, has taken Nembang´s suggestion positively.



Speaker Nembang advised the party chief as parliament can´t take action against the lawmaker on its own. If the same case had been filed against a civil servant, the guilty would have been suspended immediately.



A letter sent to Nembang by the CIAA has said the anti-graft body arrested Karki only after it gathered evidences. “Complaints had been filed against him even in the past. But we finally arrested him only after verifying the evidences,” the CIAA wrote to Nembang.



CIAA Spokesperson Ishwari Paudel said it will begin interrogating Karki and his accomplice Brahmanand Udasin from Thursday.



Meanwhile the UML has formed a three-member probe committee to investigate into the bribery case. “A three-member committee has been formed to investigate into the matter. It has been directed to submit its report as early as possible,” said a statement issued by the party´s central disciplinary body on Tuesday.



The party said it will take action as per the committee´s report.







Sent to judicial custody



Karki, 45, has been sent to a 20-day judicial custody. The Special Court (SC) on Tuesday issued the order to send him to custody after the CIAA sought a period of one month for further investigation into the case.



Karki claimed that it was a conspiracy hatched against him by his political rivals. “I have been trapped by my enemies as I am close to leader Bamdev Gautam,” he told reporters. Karki who hails from Syangja was elected as lawmaker under the proportional representation electoral system.



thira@myrepublica.com

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