King may be next in Raymajhi Commission

The Raymajhi Commission is likely to record King Gyanendra’s statement next week on his cabinet’s role in the suppression of the recent Jana Andolan the himalaya times reports .

The panel will seek his version about the role of the erstwhile cabinet in killing and suppressing people during Jana Andolan-II during which 21 people were killed and 6000 hurt.

“We are likely to record his statement next week,” a member of the Panel, Ram Prasad Shrestha, told . “Since we have completed recording statements of the other officials of the royal regime, now we want to know his role from him,” he said adding, “But what process we will adopt to record his statement has not yet been decided,” Shrestha also claimed that after recording the King’s statement the commission members would submit their report and make it public through the media.

“We want to meet the September 11 deadline,” he added. The government had recently extended the commission’s two-month tenure. King Gyanendra had chaired the cabinet meetings during his direct rule. Hence the panel decided to ask him for his version. “

A few ministers in the erstwhile royal cabinet had said that the King should take the moral responsibility for the suppression. “Thus we have to record the King’s statement,” Shrestha added. The panel has quizzed about 300 officials including the then vice-chairmen of the cabinet, Dr Tulsi Giri and Kirtinidhi Bista, the then home minister Kamal Thapa and ministers, Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) Pyar Jung Thapa and his deputy, General Rukmangat Katuwal.

Giri had told the commission that he was not ready to take the responsibility for suppressing the people as he had done nothing aimed at that, but Bista and Thapa said they were ready to take moral responsibility although they had tried to maintain law and order in the country. They claimed that they did not issue any shoot order.

The royal ministers, bureaucrats and the security officials, while recording their statements, made different claims. “Nobody is ready to take direct responsibility,” Shrestha added. “The ex-ministers told us that they had no hand in suppressing the people, but bureaucrats claimed that they just worked as per the orders that they got and the army officials claimed that the civil administration should take the responsibility because they had only backed the Nepal police,” Shrestha added.