KATHMANDU – The Speaker of Nepal’s Parliament resigned on Tuesday following an allegation that he raped a woman staffer while he was intoxicated.
Krishna Bahadur Mahara’s resignation follows a meeting of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) that asked him to step down as the Speaker and MP, a day after the woman alleged that the politician assaulted her at her rented apartment.
“In the wake of media reports questioning my moral character, I am resigning on the moral ground to facilitate an impartial and fair investigation into the allegations,” read Mahara’s resignation letter, according to the Kathmandu Post. Mahara — one of the country’s leading Communist Party leaders — however, said in the letter that he has resigned until the investigation is completed.
He had initially denied the allegation, calling it an attempt to “assassinate his character”. Mahara was elected Speaker of the House of Representative in 2018 after the Communist Party of Nepal won majority of the seats in elections in November 2017.
