KATHMANDU: Delhi Capitals has not picked Nepali leg spinner Sandeep Lamichhane out of four overseas players for its first match of the IPL 2019 against Mumbai Indians being played at the latter’s home ground on Sunday.

Delhi had been keeping a keen eye on Sandeep as he played different T20 tournaments including the famous Big Bash League from Melbourne Stars. However, he was not included for the clash.

Delhi will be eyeing a win against Mumbai led by Rohit Sharma that has clinched the IPL title thrice. Delhi that was knocked out form Group Stage last season is hopeful for a flying start to the tournament.

Delhi Capitals: Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Shreyas Iyer (capt), Rishabh Pant (wk), Colin Ingram, Keemo Paul, Axar Patel, Rahul Tewatia, Kagiso Rabada, Trent Boult, Ishant Sharma.

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (capt), Quinton de Kock (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Krunal Pandya, Yuvraj Singh, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Ben Cutting, Mitchell McClenaghan, Rasikh Salam, Jasprit Bumrah.

KATHMANDU: Police have begun an investigation into four cases against leaders of Netra Bikram Chand ‘Biplav’-led Communist Party of Nepal including Standing Committee member Hemanta Prakash Oli arrested on Friday.

According to Metropolitan Police Range, Lalitpur, police have started the investigation into the cases of organized crime, crime against the state, arms and ammunition and bomb explosion.

They were presented before Lalitpur District court on Sunday. The court remanded them to eight days in judicial custody to facilitate the investigation.

Police have filed cases against leader Oli, central member Basanta Shrestha, Rautahat District In-charge Shankar Adhikari, Lalitpur District Committee Member Buddha Bahadur Sintang, members Ramkrishna Khatiwada, Devraj Ghimire, Sandeep Karki, Lokendra Khadka and driver Dharmaraj Rajbahak. Police is also preparing to file a murder case against them.

KATHMANDU: Delhi Capitals, the team of Nepali leg spinner, Sandeep Lamichhane, is kicking off its IPL 2019 journey on Sunday. Delhi Capitals will face Mumbai Indians at the latter’s home ground in its first match of the tournament this evening.

Delhi will be eyeing a win against Mumbai led by Rohit Sharma that has clinched the IPL title thrice. Delhi, that was knocked out form Group Stage last season, is hopeful for a flying start to the tournament. Cricket fans are impatient to know if the Nepali spinner will play the first match of this season.

Delhi had been keeping a keen eye on Sandeep as he played different T20 tournaments including the famous Big Bash League from Melbourne Stars. Delhi has been constantly praising Sandeep for his achievements in international tournaments.

Last time in IPL, in the last three matches, he gave an outstanding performance by taking five wickets. He was paid Indian Rupees two million last year. Delhi had retained 14 players including Sandeep for this season.

Since then, Sandeep has made to the list of probable players for Delhi this season. But, there are doubts over Sandeep playing the first match as Delhi has veteran players like Amit Mishra in the team.

Meanwhile, Delhi Capitals tweeted Sandeep’s photo with a caption ‘Sandeep cannot wait for the game, bring it on’, which has signaled that the star Nepali spinner will make it to the playing XI.

KATHMANDU: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Sunday claimed the government is heading on a positive path in full swing. Addressing the last meeting of the Winter Session of the Parliament, the prime minister mentioned the government is working with vigor and dynamics.

‘This year remained dynamic for the government and the parliament. We are speeding on a positive path,’ he claimed.

The prime minister added the government has achieved big political achievements while stressing of the need of institutionalizing them.

“The government booked those involved in gold smuggling. A case was filed over 46 persons over the 33 kg gold smuggling case,” the prime minister said while highlighting the achievements of his government.

On a different note, PM Oli said that the government has adopted zero tolerance against corruption and the guilty will be booked immediately.

Terming the third session of the federal parliament successful, the prime minister informed the parliament formulated 126 bills within a year, which according to him, is a historic achievement.

KATHMANDU: The Winter Session of Federal Parliament is concluding on Sunday. The Parliament Secretariat informed the sessions of House of Representative and National Assembly will be prorogued today.

The House session began on December 26. During the period, the lower house passed 13 bills out of tabled 23 bills while the upper house passed three out of seven bills.

Now, the remaining bills will be transferred to the Budget Session, according to the Secretariat.

MAHENDRANAGAR: Kanchanpur District Court on Sunday ordered the release of the then Chief of District Police Office, Kanchanpur, (now suspended) SP Dilli Bista on bail.

The erstwhile Kanchanpur Police Chief has been accused of sheer negligence in course of an investigation of the Nirmala rape and murder case. He is also charged with destroying evidence of the crime and inflicting torture.

A single bench of Judge Dr. Rajendra Kumar Acharya ordered his release on a bail bond of 1.05 million.  The court demanded a bail bond of Rs 600, 000 for torturing persons in police custody and Rs 450,000 for negligence during the investigation and for destroying evidence.

Bista is yet to submit the bail bond. He will be sent to detention if he fails to deposit the bail bond by 5 pm today, according to the court’s official.

A case was filed at Kanchanpur district court on March 7 against eight police personnel including former SP Bista accusing them of inflicting torture on the victim’s family and committing grave negligence in the course of the investigation. Of them, six have been already released on bail.

CHITWAN: Nepali Congress leader Dr Shekhar Koirala has said the culture of factionalism will affect smooth functioning of the party.

Even though it is natural within a democratic party, it can harm the party functioning. Koirala, however, said the party will go astray if mafia culture dominates the party.

Speaking at a program in Chitwan on Sunday, Koirala said the culture of factionalism is not unusual since it helps make the party strong.

On the occasion, he reiterated that republic and federalism have been the party’s agenda, and that the party was committed to the agendas. He also alleged the government of interfering in all sectors, including education and health.

GAUSHALA: Three persons, including two teenage girls and an adult committed suicide yesterday.

Sangrila Yadab, 13 of Samsi Rural Municipality-4 and Kunjan Kumari Mahato-13 of Mahottari district committed suicide, according to Ishwor Karki, a police sub-inspector at the District Police Office.

Likewise, Surya Dev Mukhiya, 60 of Ramgopal Municipality-5 succumbed to burn injuries. Mukhiya had set himself ablaze by pouring kerosene over his body. The police is investing the cause of suicides.

RANJHA: Total 72 wild animals in Banke National Park were killed in road accidents while 36 more were injured in road accident last year.

Speeding vehicles along the East-West highway passing through the Banke National Parks killed and injured the animals, according to Banke National Park Information officer, Bishnu Prasad Thapaliya.

The national park lacks adequate drinking water sources. As such the animals need to cross the road to go to the Rapti river to quench their thirst. The highway stretches up to 75 kilometres within the park area.

Frequency of road accidents involving wild animal has increased with the onset of the dry summer season.

Animals like the wild boar, spotted deer, swamp deer and monkey often get killed in road accidents. One or the other animal is found dead in road accident daily.

Statistics provided by the park officials shows that most number of accidents occur along the Obhari to Agaiya of Rapti Sonari rural municipality.

However, the park is not found taking action against the vehicles responsible for killing the wild animals.

Arresting the drivers of errant vehicles is a nuisance since they get the information on the death of wild animals late, according to Thapaliya. Most accidents involving the wild animals occur at night.

Thapaliya informed that the Park is mulling over to implement ‘time card’ system for vehicles and increasing the number of check posts within the park area. It is also planning to install CCTV cameras at several paces along the highway within the park.

The Banke National Park was set up nine years back with the main objective of conserving the endangered, Royal Bengal Tiger. The park is spread on an area of 550 square kilometers.

Wildlife conservation experts say that the tiger’s prey like the spotted deer, swamp deer and other herbivores are facing crisis due to the drying up of grass and vegetation and for lack of adequate water sources.

The Park has the plan of constructing more water ponds inside the park to address this problem, assistant conservation officer Purushottam Sharma said. There are 26 artificial ponds inside the park at present which are insufficient.

Pushpa Kamal Dahal alias ‘Prachanda’ is now in the USA for the treatment of his spouse, Sita. There were suspicions that Prachanda could face stern penalty over human rights violation in the US in connection with the Maoist insurgency (1996-2006) that claimed over 16 thousand lives in Nepal.

The US government that had once labeled Prachanda-led CPN-Maoist party as a ‘terrorist’ outfit, facilitated Prachanda’s US visit this time. The two-time prime minister visited the US without any legal hurdles. It was only in 2012 that the US had delisted Maoists from its list of the global terrorist group.

Bringuel’s remarks cannot be ignored since he has the experience of over 27 years on investigative, research, and training. The retired FBI official is also a recipient of several awards for his investigative work including an Attorney General’s Citation for an organized crime investigation.

However, this does not mean that the US has sanctified Prachanda, according to Andrew Bringuel, II, a former Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) of the FBI. That means the leader of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP), the biggest political party now heading the government in Nepal, is still under the scrutiny of the US security system.

Bringuel’s remarks cannot be ignored since he has the experience of over 27 years on investigative, research, and training. The retired FBI official is also a recipient of several awards for his investigative work including an Attorney General’s Citation for an organized crime investigation.

Among his involvement in some high profile cases, Bringuel was the first responder to the Eric Robert Rudolph abortion clinic bombing, a negotiator during the Montana Freemen barricade, and a first responder to the 9/11 Pentagon bombing — the biggest terrorist attack in the US history.

Not only Prachanda, George Washington, Menachem Begin, Yasser Arafat, Bobby Rush, and others were members of the “terrorist groups” as defined by governments and later they held political office, he said.

Speaking exclusively with Khabarhub, this seasoned personality talked about the latest US treatment of Prachanda.

Regarding the US policy of giving Prachanda a clean sheet and facilitating his US visit, Bringuel states that the recent incident is a continuation of a long history of former terrorists who later ascend to high political office after giving up unlawful violence to further political or social objectives.

Not only Prachanda, George Washington, Menachem Begin, Yasser Arafat, Bobby Rush, and others were members of the “terrorist groups” as defined by governments and later they held political office, he said.

According to Bringuel, they were defined as terrorists because they or their groups used violence against people or property to coerce a government or segment of a population in furtherance of political and social objectives.

However, later they or their group developed non-violent political means to achieve political and social objectives which were accepted in their respective countries. Bringuel said they ran and won through popular vote and got elected, and most retained some or all of their prior political and social ideology without the unlawful violence.

Some continued to use violence but now it was sanctioned through the state. As such, the US treatment of Prachanda, as suggested by Bringuel is not that different from the way other former terrorists who achieve political power are treated.

In Bringuel’s words, giving Prachanda a clean sheet by the US may not mean that he is out of the danger zone but that he is still under the preview of the US security mechanism. Or that the US is still studying his move and will continue to do so even as the party headed by Prachanda now leads the majority government in the federal republic of Nepal.

“Politics makes strange bedfellows. Like the meetings with Kim Jung-un, the US believes that you keep your friends close but your enemies closer,” remarks Bringuel.