The government's efforts to control activities of Netra Bikram Chand-led CPN have hit a roadblock with courts across the country releasing the arrested cadres on bail and date.
The Sindhupalchowk District Court on Thursday released 17 cadres of the party who were facing a crime against the state, that carries a sentence of up to 25 years, and organized crime. The court released one on a bail of Rs 25,000, 13 others for Rs 6,000 each, and three minors on date.
The 17 persons, including four women, were arrested after a raid at 2 am on March 2 while they were sleeping at a house in Karkitar of Chautara Sangachowkgadi municipality 10.
SP Mukunda Marasini had said documents for military training, letter seeking donation from district chief of the Nepal Electricity Authority, and leaflets and pamphlets against the state were confiscated from them.
District attorney Rajendra Chhetri said the defendants refuted the charge of crime against the state during their statement to the court. "They said they were involved in expansion of the organization and not crime against the state," Chhetri stated. "The court may have released them on bail based on those statements. We can appeal the decision."
Chhetri claimed that the released cadres will face difficulty to carry out their activities like they did earlier even after being released as they still have to come to the court for date.
The Rolpa District Court has also recently released three cadres of Chand, arrested on charge of arson, on bail of Rs 60,000 each.
The Cabinet meeting on March 12 had decided to ban activities of the Chand-led party, that has yet to be registered with the Election Commission, after rise in destructive activities and extortion drive. But there are no clear legal grounds for banning the party's activities as the Constitution guarantees rights for peaceful assembly and organization, and the government did not bring any laws to ban the party's peaceful activities.
The police have intensified arrest of leaders and cadres of the party after the ban. The police attach cases of organized crime, and arms and ammunition case if arms are confiscated from them to the case of crime against the state. But the courts have been releasing them on bail and date creating headache for the government.
The police currently have around 200 leaders and cadres of the party in custody and all of them will have to be produced before the court once the limit on their custody expires. A total of 54 cadres out of those against whom cases have been registered have already been released, according to the police.
A senior police officer confided that release of the cadres by the court has started to create headache for the police about how to control the party's activities.
"The police build strong and mature cases and register them. We investigate for three weeks and build the case. I cannot comment on what the court does to that," Nepal Police Spokesperson Uttam Raj Subedi told Setopati.
SSP Subedi claimed that the case of crime against the state is attracted against Chand's cadres as they have been organized against the state.
Third ranked leader of the Netra Bikram Chand-led CPN and in-charge of the central command Hemanta Prakash Oli was arrested along with seven others from Kavrepalanchowk on Saturday.
A joint team of the Metropolitan Police Crime Division, Special Bureau and Kavre Police had arrested eight persons including Oli. Central member of the party Basanta Shrestha, Rautahat incharge Shankar Adhikari, Ram Krishna Khatiwada, Buddha Bahadur Sintang, Sanjeev Karki, Dev Ghimire, Lokendra Khadka, driver of the vehicle Dharma Raj Rajbahak, and Oli were nabbed after a tipoff when they were coming to Kathmandu.
The police had recovered a loaded Japanese pistol, its magazine, 21 rounds of bullets, gelignite (blasting gelatin) and detonators from the Mahindra Scorpio jeep (Ba 17 Cha 4893) they were travelling on.
The police claim that Oli was carrying the pistol, and suspect that the same pistol was used while planning the bomb in front of the Ncell head office in Nakkhu on February 22 that killed one person. They say one of the four persons, who had come on motorcycles, had pulled the pistol on security guard at Ncell and planted the bomb.
The police have yet to lodge any case against politburo member Mohan Karki, who was arrested from Lalitpur on March 15. But they have already lodged cases of organized crime, bombing, arms and ammunition, and crime against the state against Oli who is ranked third in the party behind Chand and Khadga Bahadur Bishwokarma. The Lalitpur District Court on March 24 granted a judicial custody for eight days on those cases against Oli.
But the Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday ordered the government to produce Oli before the court within three days.
Hearing the habeas corpus petition filed by Oli's daughter Bipana on Wednesday, a single bench of Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana on Thursday issued a show-cause notice and ordered the government to produce Oli before the court within three days.
