A Parliament Secretariat staffer told lawmaker Uma Regmi early morning today that she was raped by Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara last evening at her rented flat in Tinkune. Mahara, however, refuted the allegation. Nepali Congress lawmaker Regmi told THT over phone from Chitwan that the staffer told her about the incident at around 12:30am today.

Regmi said she did not know anything else about the allegation. “What she told me around midnight may be true or false. I do not know,” Regmi said.

Mahara said the accuser was trying to exact revenge for not helping her become a permanent employee at the Parliament Secretariat. “She has been working on deputation at the Parliament Secretariat. She sought my help to make her post a permanent one so that she could work without having to worry about getting transferred from the Parliament Secretariat. I told her that I cannot help her in that regard. She was angry with me for that and levelled the allegation of rape against me,” Mahara said. He claimed that he did not meet her yesterday.

The accuser, whose identity THT knows but chose not to disclose, could not be contacted as her mobile phone was switched off.

A police source told THT that a Parliament Secretariat staffer called last night alleging that she was sexually abused by Mahara, but did not lodge a first information report. Another source at Metropolitan Police Circle, Baneswhor circle, told THT that a Parliament Secretariat staffer told cops that she was sexually abused by a VIP. But when she was asked to lodge an FIR in writing she refused to do so.

A version of this article appears in print on October 01, 2019 of The Himalayan Times.