Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) President Rabi Lamichhane’s personal driver Dil Bahadur Thapa is being treated on ventilator support in Bharatpur, Chitwan.
Thapa was severely injured after he fell from the top of Lamichhane’s three-story house at Bharatpur-11 at around four o’clock on Monday morning. He has been admitted to College of Medical Sciences (Purano Medical College), Bharatpur.
According to Superintendent of Police Rameshwar Karki, chief of Disrict Police Office, Chitwan, Thapa’s neck bone was broken in the fall. Karki said that Thapa’s neck appears to have hit a flowerpot when he fell from above.
“He has been kept on ventilator after an operation on the broken bone, condition is serious,” Karki said.
Police have been questioning various people regarding the incident.
The driver of RSP General Secretary Mukul Dhakal had slept in the same room with Thapa.
“Mukul’s driver has said that he had no knowledge of the incident. He has said that he woke up only after other people started making noise,” Karki said.
When Thapa fell at around four in the morning, Lamichhane’s personal security guard and police had heard a sound and gone outside to look what had happened.
Police have also recovered liquor bottles from the room where the two drivers had slept.
“We have taken their blood samples to check whether they had consumed alcohol or not,” Karki said.
According to Karki, police have not detained anybody for investigation but they have been questioning people in the neighborhood.
He said that they have yet to find out how Thapa fell.
Meanwhile, Lamichhane has canceled his scheduled election campaigning in Bara after the incident. He is at the hospital where Thapa is being treated.
Lamichhane was scheduled to visit Bara after a door-to-door campaign in Chitwan in the morning but he stayed back in Chitwan instead of going to Bara after the incident, a source close to Lamichhane said. Lamichhane has met the driver at the hospital, the source added.
Ramesh Kharel, who is contesting the by-election in Bara-2, and Lamichhane were scheduled to address corner meetings in seven places on Monday.
