Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kumar Dahal alias Prachanda has urged the Supreme Court to scrap the petition against him for allegedly taking responsibility for killing 5,000 people during the decade-long Maoist insurgency, reported the Kathmandu Post.
Prachanda, in his writ appeal, argued that he never took responsibility of the killings.
Dahal said that in 2020, he was ready to take moral responsibility for 5,000 deaths "as a response to attempts from some quarters to create a narrative that the then-rebels, CPN-Maoist, must take responsibility for all 17,000 insurgency-era deaths."
The CPN (Maoist Centre) chief said he made a statement to counter the narrative. "I made the statement during political discussions, arguments, and counter-arguments should be considered as matters outside judicial review," Prachanda stressed.
On March 7, a petition was submitted by advocate Gyanendra Aran and other victims of the Maoist insurgency in the Supreme Court seeking the arrest of Prachanada for taking responsibility for the killings during the insurgency.
"If you insist, I can take responsibility for 5,000. However, it would be unfair not to discuss the deaths of 12,000 from the state and blame me for all the killings, Prachanda said on January 15, 2020, adding that his party was falsely accused of all the insurgency-era killings.