Amid political instability after Nepal's second largest party in Parliament withdrew its support to its government, another crisis has arisen. A writ petition was filed in Nepal's Supreme Court seeking the arrest of Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal over his statement of 2020 in which he took responsibility for the deaths of 5,000 people during the insurgency.
Incumbent Prime Minister and the chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN)-Maoist Center, Dahal aka Prachanda refuted allegations that he had killed 17,000 people in a decade-long insurgency while addressing an event on 15 January 2020.
But he said he took responsibility for the deaths of 5,000 people during the insurgency period.
The writ petition seconded by dozens of members of the families was filed on Tuesday based on Dahal's public statement.
Advocate Gyanendra Raj Aran, one of the petitioners, says they decided to move the court as Dahal's statement hurt the families.
"We are not politically motivated. We will accept whatever the court decides," Aran said.
The Supreme Court has scheduled the preliminary hearing of the case for Thursday.
While addressing the event of Maghi in Kathmandu, three years back, the incumbent Prime Minister had said to take responsibility for the deaths of 5,000 of those killed during the insurgency period.
"It has been claimed that I killed 17,000 people, this is not true. Let me tell you the truth, the actual truth is- the feudal monarchy at the time had killed 12,000 people, I would accept the death of the remaining 5,000 in my name," Dahal had said while addressing the meet as the Chairman of CPN-Maoist Center.
Further adding, Dahal also said he would take responsibility for all the good and bad things that happened during the armed conflict.
Though the writ petitions were filed earlier in November of 2022, the Supreme Court administration had denied registering the petition which sought the court's order to arrest Dahal on the basis of the statement delivered then.
Denying the registration, the administration at that time had stated that conflict-era cases don't fall under its jurisdiction and directed it to the transitional justice mechanism.
Kalyan Budhathoki of Ramechhap and advocate Gyanendra Aran then filed an application against the decision.
Aran and Budhathoki have stated in their petitions that they are conflict victims and that they have also filed complaints against Dahal at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
They have sought maximum punishment for Dahal and others as per the law, stating that Dahal had made a public statement taking moral responsibility for killing 5,000 people.
They have also sought an interim order to arrest Dahal and move the necessary investigation process forward.
( With inputs from ANI )
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