Parliament Speaker in Nepal Resigns After Rape Accusation

Oct. 1, 2019, 10:45 a.m. ET

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/01/world/asia/nepal-parliament-speaker-r...

The speaker of Nepal’s lower house of Parliament resigned from his position on Tuesday after a parliamentary employee accused him of raping her on Sunday in her apartment in Kathmandu, the capital.

The lawmaker, Krishna Bahadur Mahara, a towering figure in the country’s governing Nepal Communist Party, denied assaulting the woman and suggested that she was retaliating after being denied a job in his office.

But after the woman’s accusations became public on Monday, the party faced increasing pressure to take action.

At an emergency meeting on Tuesday, party leaders including Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli ordered Mr. Mahara to step down, and he did so shortly thereafter. He will retain his seat in Parliament.

“Since various media outlets raised serious questions regarding my character, I hereby resign from my position on moral grounds to ease an independent, free and fair investigation until the investigation process completes,” Mr. Mahara said in a written statement.