Court permits 12-day detention to Durga Prasain; Tinkune incident predetermined incident: Home Minister

Kathmandu / April 11: The District Court, Kathmandu has given permission to the police to keep medical entrepreneur Durga Prasain in detention for 12 days to investigate his involvement in the Tinkune violence orchestrated on March 28.

The Nepal Police had taken under control Prasain from Bhadrapur, Jhapa on Friday morning and brought to Kathmandu to forward investigation. He was presented before the District Court, Kathmandu where judge Shisir Raj Dhakal decided for 12 days’ detention to him, according to information officer Dipak Kumar Shrestha.

Prasain was held along with his security aide Dipak Khadka. He will also be in detention together.

The supporters of ex-king, including Prasain, had conducted a violent demonstration prompting the government to invoke the law on crime against State and organized crime. Prasain is held in this connection.

Earlier, on the same charge, leaders of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Rabindra Mishra and Dr Dhawal Shamser Rana, were detained for the investigation.

Tinkune incident predetermined incident: Home Minister

Meanwhile, Minister for Home Affairs Ramesh Lekhak has said the arrests of those responsible for the violent demonstrations by pro-monarchists on March 28 continue to take place.

During a meeting of the Law, Justice and Human Rights Committee, the House of Representatives today, the Minister said the main accused in the demonstrations, Durga Prasai, has been apprehended.

He added that the Council of Ministers has already decided to ensure free treatment for those injured in the demonstrations. “The government will bear the cost if the need to buy medicines outside the hospital pharmacies,” he said. “I have visited injured at hospitals.”

According to the Minister, the process has been initiated to provide compensation of Rs one million each to the families of two killed in the demonstrations. He described the Tinkune demonstrations as the violation of the Constitution.

He further asserted that there is a space for expressing dissatisfactions in the constitutional and democratic system, but there is no excuse for seeking an alternative to democracy and for the regression.

The government has taken the Tinkune incident seriously. Such incident must not recur, he added. “We are clear that the incident was predetermined and is a crime capable of spreading terror and anarchy.”