Executive editor of Ujyalo Network online Anis Tamang has been arrested over publishing a document purported to be a four-point agreement between Prime Minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli and Chief of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) of India Samant Goel.
Tamang was arrested from his office at Anamnagar by the Metropolitan Police Range, Kathmandu Sunday afternoon on a warrant issued by the Kathmandu District Court.
Chief of Metropolitan Police Range, Kathmandu SSP Ashok Singh said Tamang has been arrested form outside his office for investigation in the case about electronic transactions act and offense against the state.
The online portal around 10 days back had published the English document claiming to have been signed by Oli and Goel that was bafflingly marked as being unofficial translation.
RAW Chief Goel had arrived in Kathmandu on an Indian Air Force plane in late October 2020 and secretly met with PM Oli at Baluwatar for around three hours in the night. The meeting was known only after Goel returned to India following media reports.
The PM's secretariat initially denied that such meeting took place before Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali eventually acknowledged that Goel had arrived as a special envoy of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The portal claimed that the four-point agreement was signed after the meeting between PM Oli and Goel. It later apologized for the news report after the PM's secretariat refuted the report claiming it was fake.
The Patan High Court hearing a petition filed by the portal on Thursday had ordered the police to not arrest journalists merely for publishing a news report.
