Advocate Rudra Pokharel who has been accused of trying to make a deal of Rs 20 million with Judge Raj Kumar Koirala of the Kathmandu District Court to release Ichha Raj Tamang on bail, has said he was not involved in such deal and will seek legal recourse.
Posting a status on Facebook on Wednesday, he has called the audio tape purportedly depicting him making the deal a conspiracy against him and added that he will seek legal recourse.
He has called for investigation on the audio tape and added that he will cooperate in investigation of the case by the Nepal Bar Association (NBA) and Bar Council. He has also revealed that he has frozen his NBA membership and said he will not participate in any legal consultation and pleading for now.
News24 television broadcast the telephone corporation, authenticity of which Setopati has not been able to confirm, in a program Tuesday evening.
Pokharel tells Judge Koirala to release Tamang, who has been arrested on a fraud case, stressing that such opportunity does not come regularly in the purported conversation of almost 10 minutes. He assures Koirala that he will talk with CJ Cholendra Shumsher Rana, who has been suspended since after an impeachment motion was lodged against him, and the top-ranked judge at the Kathmandu District Court about the matter in the conversation.
Koirala, who fears for his job at first, is convinced after Pokharel assures that his verdict will be endorsed even by the Patan High Court.
Tamang, who was arrested on charge of duping commoners off Rs 8 billion, was sent to judicial custody on December 29, 2021.
The purported conversation seems to have happened before that and the agreement does not seem to have held as Koirala sent him to jail. An advocate who is closely observing the episode claimed with Setopati that Koirala sent Tamang to jail after top-ranked judge at the Kathmandu District Court Raju Kumar Khatiwada refused to comply with the deal.
Pokharel is close to CPN-UML and is member of the legal department of the main opposition party. He was treasurer of the Nepal Bar Association (NBA) and had argued in defense of the House dissolution by KP Sharma Oli in the Supreme Court.
Koirala, meanwhile, has claimed that he has not done anything untoward in the case.
Koirala has conceded that his attention has been drawn by news reports on the issue and assured that he will cooperate if the Judicial Council investigates the matter.
“My attention has been drawn by news reports about me published today. I have not done anything untoward. I have played a neutral role despite different influences and pressure. Let the Judicial Council investigate me, I express full commitment to cooperate,” Koirala has posted on Facebook Wednesday.
