Ankit Adhikari,Manish Gautam

When Chandra Kala Mainali talked over the phone with her Japan-based youngest son on March 20, 1997, she had not the faintest idea that he would be imprisoned three days later.The mother and son had talked about situations back in their hometown of Ilam. “I was in Kathmandu for a few days and in a very jolly mood. He asked what I was taking for his daughters, who were in Ilam then,” Chandra Kala recalled on Thursday.However, a terrible fate was to befall the Mainalis. Three days after the last conversation, Govinda Prasad Mainali was detained by the Japanese authorities on rape and murder charges.

The 79-year-old mother was seemingly cheerful on Thursday following news of her son’s release and retrial. Things have not been easy for her the past 15 years. According to Gobinda’s elder brother Indra, every passing day she would hope to see Govinda freed.

“We are definitely satisfied with the brother’s release,” Indra said. “However, the pain in which dad left this world five years back, desperate to see his son free, will always be etched in my memory. I really don’t understand why fate played this terrible game on us.”

At the time he was arrested, Govinda, according to his brother, was preparing to come back to Nepal and live with his family. “The year 1997 was his fourth in Japan,” Indra said. “He had already built a house in Kathmandu and his wife and daughters were also planning to shift to the Capital.”

Govinda’s family, including his wife and two daughters Mithila and Elisa, live in their Shankhamul-based house. All three of them have gone to Japan to bring back Govinda.

“Govinda will arrive in Nepal within a week,” Indra giggled. “I can already feel the joy the reunion will bring.”

As Indra spoke, he also talked about criticism from society after Govinda’s imprisonment. “We knew from the beginning that our brother was not the real culprit,” he said. “But people would not believe us. For them, a country like Japan could never make a mistake.”

However, “Govinda will return with his head held high and put an ende said.

Published  on: 8 June 2012 | The Kathmandu Post