The commission of inquiry into the incidents of 23 and 24 Bhadra has started taking statements from then Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak.

The commission recorded a statement from the writer for about 3 hours on Monday. A statement will also be made on Wednesday. After the writer, only the statement of the then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli remains. 

Former Home Minister Lekhak had reached the commission office at 12 noon on Monday with a 6-page written statement. The writer also answered some of the questions asked by the commission. A member of the commission informed that he had insisted that he had not given any written or verbal order to use force against the protesters on 23 Bhadra. The then Home Minister Lekhak had said that he had given a clear instruction in the Central Security Committee meeting held on 22 Bhadra that ‘there should be no casualties, exercise restraint’. Stating that the minister would not interfere in the mobilization of security agencies, he argued that the law did not give him such authority. 

During the statement, former Home Minister Lekhak claimed that the peaceful demonstration by the Gen-G group demanding control of corruption and good governance was taken over by anti-democratic elements and turned into violence. He has termed the arson attacks on the Parliament building, the Supreme Court and his own private residence as a ‘planned conspiracy’ and an ‘attack on democracy’.

The writer has given a statement to the commission stating that he was shocked after the youth lost his life in the incident of 23 Bhadra and that he resigned immediately on moral grounds. He also mentioned in his statement the tragic incident of the destruction of historical documents in his house in the arson attack and the death of his sick mother a few days later while being taken to the hospital without oxygen. He says that the pain of losing his mother is deeper than the arson attack.

The former Home Minister Lekhak objected to the fact that the government, on the recommendation of the commission, had withheld his passport for three months without informing him and banned him from leaving the Kathmandu Valley without permission. A few hours after the statement began on Monday, Lekhak had asked for leave saying that he had a ‘party meeting’. A member of the commission said that his statement would be continued on Wednesday. ‘The statement of the then Home Minister Lekhak has only just begun, it is not over,’ the member said, ‘There are still many questions prepared by the commission. Based on the answers submitted, we will formulate other questions and call him for a statement again.’

The commission, formed on 5 Asho under the leadership of former Justice Gauri Bahadur Karki, started taking statements from the security personnel deployed in the field on 23 and 24 Bhadra after collecting details.