A self-styled religious leader in Nepal linked to hard-line Hindu nationalists has been accused of faking an attempt on his life by instructing a bodyguard to shoot and wound him. Dinesh Pandit, 25, revered as “Acharya Shree Niwas” by Hindu devotees, was shot on April 8 in the country’s east shortly before he was scheduled to address a mass religious gathering.
Some devotees, seeking to fuel street protests, claimed that it was a premeditated attack by Christians.
The government said it would pay for Acharya’s medical treatment while the main opposition political party called for an upgrading of protection for religious leaders.
Acharya was discharged from hospital after 21 days, but on May 8 police detained him before he could board a flight to India. Subsequently, Acharya was charged with staging his own shooting and attempting to incite communal violence.
The initial investigation carried out by police indicated that Acharya had instructed his bodyguard, Madhav Chaudhary, to shoot him in one arm so that it would look like an assassination attempt. Chaudhary, who was arrested 26 days after the attack, reportedly confessed his role.
The administration office in Morang district remanded Acharya in custody. Some Christians suspect that Acharya’s shooting scam was part of a wider conspiracy to suppress religious freedom and spur attacks on non-Hindus.
BP Khanal, Nepal chapter coordinator of the International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief, said that despite Nepal being officially secular, the state still encouraged the notion that Nepalis had to be Hindu.
“Religious minorities are often persecuted and attacked,” he said. And in recent years Christians have been victimized over the alleged killing of cattle as well as the distribution of Bibles and conversion of non-Christians. Reverend Joseph Shrestha, chairperson of the Christian Society in Nepal’s Province 7, said that in December 2016 Hindu extremists organized mass protests following the deaths of cows in the Kailali district.
