Three persons have been arrested for their alleged involvement in attacking Mamata Prasad Chaudhary, Mayor of Ghodaghodi Municipality, in Kailali district on Monday. The arrested persons are said to be the cadres of Netra Bikram Chand-led Communist Party of Nepal.

According to a central member of the Chand-led Communist Party of Nepal, the arrestees have been identified as Kamal Chhetri aka Pabitra, Hridaya Bogati and Bharat Shah. All of them are the members of district secretariat, Kailali.

Following Deukali incident in which a woman was tortured on witchcraft charges, the party had issued a statement and warned that Chaudhary will be punished by people. The trio has not confessed to the crime yet.

According to a high-level source, Mayor Chaudhary was attacked at the party’s direction.

It has been learnt that Chaudhary was attacked not only for the Deukali incident but also for her alleged involvement in financial irregularities.

The local administration had decided to provide security to the Mayor following Deukali incident.

A group of around 20 unidentified assailants had attacked and injured Chaudhary yesterday. The assailants had shot at Mayor Chaudhary’s hip and attacked in his head with Khukuri.

Mayor Mamata was dragged into controversy after he allegedly abetted Ram Bahadur Chaudhary, a local shaman who severely beat an 18-year-old girl on witchcraft charge.

Ram Bahadur and some other villagers had tortured the girl from Deukali Village of Ghodaghodi-5, Kailali for six hours on Thursday, accusing her of practicing witchcraft.