An online newspaper published the following photo showing CPN UML district level leader Resham Bahadur Baniya and his new wife Sushila Pandey being punished by the locals for polygamy charges. The 72-year-old Baniya had recently married the 26-year-old Sushila, while his other wife, Min Kumari is still living with him.

It is a sad incident to to see such a leader doing such a social crime. But, the locals in the area also do not have any rights to punish anybody by their own decisi
ons. There has to be proper legal procedure to be followed before anybody is punished for their crime.

Mr. Baniya has done a grave crime of marrying a girl of age equivalent to his daughter, while being married to another lady. But, if the locals decide on what to do with the culprits, who will be held responsible if the accusations turned out to be false in the future?

It is not the local who punish the criminals. The police should be allowed to take care of the law. But, there are possibilities that he might use his political might to escaped unharmed, but the local can act as a pressure group to force the
police to punish him, rather than taking the action themselves. Photo credits Rajendra Neupane (onlinekhabar)