N. P. Upadhyaya, Kathmandu:  The Head quarter of the Nepal Police force and later the Hague Tribunal have now logical reasons to immediately detain Comrade Prachanda for having killed some five thousand innocent lives during the Maoists led People’s War.

Comrade Prachanda alias Pushpa Kamal Dahal while admitting that he have had killed five thousand Nepali lives was not in a drunken state and that his frank “self-admission” allows the Nepali law enforcement agencies now to take him into their custody.

However, Nepal Police so far has preferred silence in this regard. This is meaningful.

The former Maoists’ leader Comrade Prachanda while making a speech recently in Kathmandu (Maghi festival January 15) in a beaming manner accepted that he was a “killer” and that he only could be held responsible for having murdered five thousand innocent Nepali lives only.

(Rough estimates have it that some eighteen thousand innocent lives were killed during the Maoists insurgency led by Comrade Prachanda. He was residing in NOIDA, Delhi during the time of the deadliest insurgency).

Doesn’t Prachanda’s self admission make it an easy business to the Nepal’s competent law enforcement authorities to apprehend Prachanda immediately and put him behind the bars as per the existing laws of the land?

The question is reasonable and valid thus.

In this regard, Supreme Court lawyer Ananta Raj Luitel quotes Nepal’s constitutional expert Dr. Bhimarjun Acharya in the Republica Daily, January 17/2020 as saying that ” since this kind of public confession also serves as a notice of crime, it needs to be taken up seriously by law enforcement ( agencies)”.

Dr. Acharya further claims that “this is nothing less than a public confession by the chief of the former rebels and so it should be taken as information for initiating a legal action”, continues advocate Luitel who is also an acclaimed constitutional expert.

Dahal publicly announced, says Dr. Acharya, that he was responsible for killing of five thousand individuals during the Maoists’ insurgency from 1996 to 2006, but not for the entire seventeen thousand individuals killed.

This then attracts the attention of the Section 15 of the Police Act, 1955 which gives powers to the Nepal Police to act on such notice as a “notice” of crime and initiate investigations, adds Dr. Acharya, the declared constitutional authority in Nepal.

Dr. Acharya hastens to add and says, “as per this provision, it is the duty of the Police to act on such information in order to prevent future crime as well as maintain the rule of law”.

He then suggests and expects (perhaps) that the Nepal Police “arrests” persons who must be arrested under the existing laws.

Dr. Acharya thus hints that the Nepal Police should take Prachanda into their custody.

But isn’t Dr. Acharya hoping against hope?

Legal experts, writes Apex Court Lawyer Ananta Raj Luitel, have also taken strong exception to Dahal’s fresh declaration that he would secure the early release of the suspended lawmaker Resham Choudhary from the Jail.

They argue that such a commitment, adds advocate Luitel in his write up in Republica daily, made in public is an open disrespect of the independence of the judiciary and human dignity since Resham Choudhary is in jail as per the verdict of a competent court of Law in connection with the Tikapur massacre.

Dahal’s statement, adds the legal eagle Mr. Luitel who is also versed in Nepal’s Constitutional processes, goes directly against Article 128 of the Constitution, which states that “respecting Court orders is the duty of every individual as well as of the government authorities”.

Not only under domestic law but also international law, Dahal needs to be held responsible for his public statement, continues legal expert Luitel in his Republica write up.

In the mean while, senior advocate Shankar Kumar Shrestha says “Dahal’s confession should attract legal liability”.

Since it is a confession, there is a need to identify the people who were killed by Dahal aka Prachanda and his party and the victim-parties are entitled to justice and compensation”, continues senior advocate Shretha, according to Mr. Luitel from his Republica story published January 17/2020.

The former Attorney general Raman Kumar Shrestha, who is supposedly close to Dahal aka Prachanda, also says  that “such statements bespeak a serious lack of statesmanship”.

However, he refrains from making sharp comments against Prachanda for some mysterious reasons.

Some legal brains in Nepal opine that if Nepal Police or for that matter some other competent Nepali Courts under political influence tend to ignore  Prachanda’s self admission that he is a killer then the International Criminal Court located in the Hague, Netherlands, must look urgently into the issue pending in Nepal.

For the record, the International Criminal Court (ICC or ICCt) is an intergovernmental organization and international Tribunal that sits in the Hague, Netherlands.

The ICC has jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the International Crimes of Genocide, crimes against Humanity, War crimes, and the crimes of aggression.

It is intended to complement existing national judicial systems and it may therefore exercise its jurisdiction only when certain conditions are met, such as when national courts are unwilling or unable to prosecute criminals or when the United nations Security Council or individual States refer situations to the Court. ( Source: WIKIPEDIA) .

To conclude: Now it should be the Nepal’s vibrant media and civil society to press the national government to detain first the man who admitted in public that he killed some five thousand people and if such a pressure fails to impress upon the government then the civil society or for that matter the media can appeal or even approach the Hague Tribunal to intervene into the matter.

To recall, Lenin Bista, the Child soldier who claims that he was abused during the Maoists insurgency too has now abundant legal and valid reasons to move the Court in the Hague.

Lenin Bista or some interested quarters can now forward the recorded version (The Maghi speech) of Comrade Prachanda for consideration of the Hague Tribunal.

Prachanda finally has accepted that he is not an innocent person but has killed several thousand innocent lives.

Attention! The domestic Law enforcement agencies and The Hague Tribunal in the Netherland.

But will the domestic security agencies dare to come into action? Not sure.

But yet poor Prachanda has axed himself finally.  So sad. That’s all.