Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) Police Chief Raju Pandey is found to have abused an employee in a way that caused her mental stress, according to a report by a committee formed to investigate allegations of abuse against Pandey.
Deepak Adhikari, KMC’s managing director, told Setopati that the committee submitted a 20-page report on its findings last Friday.
The report states that Pandey did not commit physical violence, but abused the employee in a way that caused her mental stress, according to Adhikari.
The report has recommended setting up a lactation room for female staff and a nursery for the children of KMC staff.
He also recommended warning Pandey to ensure that such incidents do not happen again in the future.
Adhikari said that Pandey will be asked for clarification again.
KMC had formed a three-member committee on December 23 last year to investigate Pandey and ordered it to submit its report within 15 days. He had extended the committee’s deadline by two weeks on January 6 and again by one week on January 21.
Gopal Prasad Pokharel was the coordinator of the committee, which also included Sumitra Lamichhane and Kumari Rai.
Ganga Upreti, the police chief of the city police, applied to the managing director Basanta Adhikari on November 25 last year, and also to the deputy mayor Sunita Dangol later, accusing Pandey of abusing her.
KMC then sought clarification from Pandey on December 5, but only submitted its clarification on December 20.
Meanwhile, KMC presented Pandey with the ‘Mahanagar Gaurav’ award on the 28th KMC Day on December 15.
According to a source, there were disagreements within KMC over the decision to award Pandey the award.
“We had said that a controversial person should not receive an award,” the source said. Basanta Adhikari did not agree. He argued that those things keep happening. It was solely his decision to give the award to Pandey.”
However, Adhikari denied it. He said Pandey received the award based on the selection committee’s decision as the accusations against him had not been proven. He said it was the five-member selection committee’s decision, not his, to award Pandey the award.
Adhikari himself was the coordinator of the selection committee, while Buddha Ratna Manandhar, Basanta Acharya, Archana Shakya and Mahesh Kafle were its members.
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