Ghorahi Ward Member Arrested Over Engine Oil Attack

A ward member of Ghorahi Sub-Metropolitan City has been arrested over the alleged public humiliation of education officer Ajay Bohara, an incident that grew out of a dispute over a school management committee election but quickly turned into a question of conduct and accountability in public office.

Police arrested Lekhnath Budhathoki, a ward member from Ghorahi-15, on Monday. District Police Office Dang spokesperson DSP Hem Bahadur KC said an investigation had been opened against him for an offence related to humiliating and inhuman treatment.

The arrest came after a video showed Budhathoki stopping Bohara near the gate of Padmodaya Public Model Secondary School in Bharatpur, Ghorahi-15, on Saturday.

Bohara was sitting on a motorcycle when Budhathoki approached him and poured engine oil from a plastic bottle over his body. The video also shows the bottle being thrown at the education officer.

Budhathoki later posted the footage on his own Facebook page.

A school election dispute moves onto the street

The confrontation was linked to the election of the school’s management committee.

Budhathoki had argued that the election process was being conducted against the rules and had demanded that it be stopped. He submitted a written application to the Ghorahi Sub-Metropolitan City office on Asar 23, raising objections to the process.

Following the complaint, the sub-metropolitan city wrote to the school on Asar 25. The letter instructed the school to examine the concerns raised over the election and proceed with the necessary steps in accordance with the rules.

Budhathoki, however, continued pressing for an immediate halt to the election. Bohara did not make the decision he was demanding.

What began as an administrative disagreement over a local school election then crossed into a public confrontation involving an elected ward representative and a municipal employee. That shift changed the centre of the story. The election dispute remained, but the conduct seen in the video became the more immediate public concern.

Video brought pressure for action

The footage drew growing criticism after it circulated publicly, particularly because the act involved a person holding elected office and a government employee who was confronted on the road.

Budhathoki’s decision to publish the video himself also left the incident in full public view. Police faced increasing pressure to act as criticism mounted over the treatment of Bohara.

The case is now being investigated under provisions concerning insulting and inhuman behaviour. Police have taken Budhathoki into custody and said further investigation is continuing.

No final legal determination has been made.

Election completed despite the confrontation

The management committee election at Padmodaya Public Model Secondary School has already been completed despite the objections, the municipal correspondence and the later confrontation.

The original dispute over whether the election followed the required rules has not disappeared. But the alleged attack has placed a separate issue before the authorities: whether disagreement over an institutional decision can be used to justify the public degradation of an official by an elected representative.

For Ghorahi, the incident has become more than a conflict inside one school. It has exposed how quickly pressure around local institutional decisions can move beyond formal complaints and official correspondence when political authority is exercised on the street.