Kathmandu [Nepal], May 24 : A district court here extended the judicial custody of Nepali media tycoon Kailash Sirohiya by three days in a case related to misuse of citizenship.
The Dhanusha District Court on Friday extended the remand of the chairman and managing director of Kantipur Media Group in the case.
A single bench of judge Romakanta Gyawali granted authority to the district police to keep Sirohiya in custody until Sunday to further investigate the allegations levelled against him.
"The district public prosecutor's office had recommended to remand him for 5 days but the court extended custody by three days," court official Kailash Prasad Bhattarai told ANI.
Police arrested the chairman of the biggest media group, Kantipur Media Group, to investigate a citizenship certificate misuse complaint lodged with the Dhanusha Police.
Arrested from his office in Kathmandu on May 21, Sirohiya was taken to Dhanusha, where he was detained based on a complaint filed by Indrajit Mahato from Sarlahi district at the District Police Office in Dhanusha on April 28.
Mahato, a supporter and member of the Rashtriya Swatantra Party chaired by Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane, lodged the complaint with police accusing the media tycoon of misappropriating citizenship cards and demanded that the offence be investigated according to the Citizenship Act 2006.
The arrest of media tycoon Sirohiya has sparked fear and outrage in Nepal with the rights group and activists calling the arrest to be politically motivated and carried out on the direction of Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane.
The Kantipur Media Group, the largest private media conglomerate of the Himalayan Nation had recently covered news stories about misappropriations of Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane. Lamichhane has been accused of involvement in misappropriated cooperatives fund when he was serving as an office bearer of Galaxy TV.
As the criticism grows over his arrest claiming it to be politically motivated, Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard, who is currently on a Nepal visit also called for the release of the media tycoon.
"I learned that the publisher of The Kathmandu Post Kailash Sirohiya has been arrested. This has sent alarms to me and many of you, no doubt. He is a respected media person. The charges on citizenship should be investigated but I repeat this, as I have done to Nepali officials, those charges do not require for him to be in custody," she said in a press conference in Kathmandu on Friday.
On the day of his arrest, the media tycoon had issued a statement stating his readiness in every investigation conducted as per the law. He also alleged that an arrest warrant was issued to blackmail Kantipur daily into not publishing more reports on cooperative frauds.
"It is the media's responsibility to raise voice and demand justice and fair investigation into all those involved in the embezzlement of the hard-earned savings of more than 7.1 million depositors in various cooperatives," Sirohiya said.
"There is no doubt that the filing of the complaint and the issuance of the arrest warrant against me without any interrogation has been done to blackmail Kantipur into not publishing more reports on the issue and to divert attention," he added.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the largest conglomerate in Nepal asserted that Kantipur will not back down even an inch from raising its voice against the wrongdoings in the society, including the cooperatives scam.
"The office bearers who abuse their authority and misuse police administration to exact vengeance against the chairman of a media house based on the news they publish should also answer when there will be an investigation into the individual who came to power through political bargaining that entailed getting the Attorney General to certify that he would not be prosecuted for holding dual passports," Sirohiya had said.
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