Amar Lama (अमर लामा in Nepali) was the driver of the jeep involved in the Dashdhunga accident that occurred on 16 May 1993, where two prominent Nepali communist leaders Madan Bhandari and Jibraj Ashrit were killed.
After nearly ten years of the Dashdhunga accident, on 28 July 2003, Lama was abducted and killed by a group of unidentified gunmen in Kirtipur, Kathmandu, which complicated the conspiracy theories surrounding the killing of the two leaders.
Early Life & As Madan Bhandari’s Driver
Amar Lama was born in Tanahu District’s Bhanu 8, Chambas area and had spent his childhood there. He was born into a poor family as the son of Chandra Bahadur Lama and Kashi Maya Lama. Though very eager to study, Lama couldn’t study beyond 7 grade, which he completed at a school in his village.
When he moved to Kathmandu, he came to contact with leftist youth members and survived doing different odd jobs. An avid reader of books, his self-study habit transformed him into a clever young man who was very good at arguments. Occasionally, he used to write columns in Prakash Weekly as well.
After gaining the trust of senior leaders of CPN (UML), he started to work as Madan Bhandari’s driver in 1990. According to Mohan Bhandari, brother of late Madan Bhandari, Amar Lama was an exceptional driver with very good driving skills.
Dashdhunga Accident & Aftermath
Since Amar Lama was the driver and the only survivor of the Dashdhunga accident, fingers were quickly pointed at him, accusing him that he became a part of a grand plot to assassinate Nepal’s rising communist leader Madan Bhandari.
He was ultimately handed down a sentence of life imprisonment by the Chitwan District Court, charging him with negligence. The sentence was later reduced by the Supreme Court, and Lama was released after spending five years in prison.
After being released from jail, Lama quit the UML and joined the Nepali Congress party. When Nepal was at the peak of the Maoist conflict, he stared to publish a weekly magazine called Tajakhabar Weekly.
In letters that he sent to his wife, Gopi Lama, from prison and in all interrogations made by Dashdhunga investigation committees, he has maintained that the Dashdhunga accident was a natural accident and he was not involved in the conspiracy to kill the leaders.
“I have suffered the most due to that accident”, he has said in one statement, “even more than the leaders’ wives and the CPN UML party…I should have died with the leaders then…Unfortunately, I’m alive.”
Later he went on to publish a book called Dashdhunga Darpan, in which he again claims that the accident was not a part of a plot.
Death
On 28 July 2003, Amar Lama was abducted from his newspaper office in Dillibazar Kathmandu by a few armed men and was taken to Kirtipur in a van. Shortly after, he was shot dead in Kirtipur.
According to some media reports, Lama was killed by the Maoist rebels. A report in NayaPatrika, claimed that the rebels had abducted him to question his motives and involvement in the Dashdhunga accident, but due to a sudden change in the security situation in the Kirtipur area, he had to be killed.
In 2013, Nagarik News published a feature report about the family of Amar Lama. According to it, Lama’s old parents and his widow struggle to meet ends in a remote Nepali village, while his eldest son Amit Lama works as a petty labourer in Dubai.
“They say Amar Lama grabbed millions by killing Madan Bhandari,” Lama’s wife Gopi says to the reporter, “and we are living in such a difficult situation here.”
