Kailali District Police Chief SP Narendra Chand said they have been taken into custody for questioning.
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The Kailali police have taken 12 forest officials into custody on Sunday on charges of pushing a tempo off a cliff. Kailali District Police Chief SP Narendra Chand said they were taken into custody for questioning. He did not mention the names of those taken into custody, saying that the incident is being investigated.
The video of a Kailali forest official pushing a tempo off a cliff in Godavari on Saturday went viral on social media. After the video was made public, people from the general public to lawmakers criticized the behavior of the forest officials in the incident.
Dhanadevi Dhami, 44, of Baspani, Godavari Municipality-4, had her tempo pushed off a cliff by forest officials. Dhami said that despite her repeated pleas, they pushed her tempo off the cliff. Dhami used to sell goods in a tempo on the roadside at Gaimare Danda on the Bhimdatta Highway near her home.
The employees of the Division Forest Office Dhangadhi also threw the tempo off the cliff, claiming that she was also encroaching on the forest. Before throwing the tempo off the cliff, the forest employees had removed the goods from the tempo. ‘Instead, I will take the tempo home, and from now on I will not come here to sell goods, but no one wanted to listen. The employees pushed and threw the tempo off the cliff,’ Dhami said. ‘Those gathered around enjoyed taking videos, but no one told them not to do it.’
The forest office has stated that the tempo was removed during the campaign to remove forest encroachment. Krishna Bohara, head of the Sub-Division Forest Office Attariya, said that the tempo was removed a month ago. He said, ‘It was not a tempo in a running condition for carrying passengers, but she had been running a shop using the van as a hut.’
Dhami said that her son bought a tempo a year ago. ‘Now all my three sons have gone to work in Bangalore, India.’ There is only me, my eldest daughter-in-law and my husband at home. I used to sell tea, eggs, noodles, water and other items,’ she said. ‘I used to support my family with the income of four to five thousand rupees from sales every day.’
