The Office of Attorney General will take a final call on whether to lodge a case against Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) President Rabi Lamichhane in passport controversy or not.
The District Government Attorney’s Office (DGAO), Kathmandu has already submitted a report including the decision to not lodge a case against Lamichhane to the High Court Government Attorney’s Office, Patan.
Any proposal to not lodge case has to be sent to the High Court Government Attorney’s Office, and the office will have to study the proposal and send a report to the Office of Attorney General (OAG) if it also decides to not lodge case.
The High Court Government Attorney’s Office, Patan has already endorsed the decision of DGAO and submitted the file to the OAG.
“The file has arrived to our office. We have yet to decide. It will come to me after going through other senior officials here,” Attorney General Din Mani Pokharel told Setopati. “We will take a decision soon. We will not keep it pending for long.”
The DGAO will have to lodge a court case if the OAG instructs to that regard.
The DGAO based its decision to not lodge a case mainly on four grounds.
The fact that the immigration records do not show that Lamichhane used the passport (No 08834838) acquired in 2015 as the first ground to not lodge the case, according to Neupane.
The second ground for not lodging the case is that he was a Nepali citizen by descent before becoming American citizen and his status was that of non-resident Nepali and not that of a foreigner.
The fact that the disputed passport has been revoked by the Department of Immigration and he has already reacquired Nepali citizenship has been used as the third ground by the DGAO for not lodging the case.
It has used the recommendation to not lodge a case made in the report submitted by the District Police Range, Kathmandu, after completing its long investigation on Lamichhane’s passport as the fourth reason for not lodging case.
Lamichhane has been accused of acquiring a Nepali passport using his invalid Nepali citizenship certificate while he still held a United States passport.
Police were investigating a case filed against Lamichhane alleging that he had acquired a Nepali passport by providing false details.
A writ petition had been filed at the Supreme Court over Lamichhane’s citizenship controversy before that.
After the final hearing on the petition on January 27, the Supreme Court had ruled that Lamichhane was ineligible to become a lawmaker as he did not complete the process to re-acquire his citizenship certificate that became invalid after he acquired US citizenship. Lamichhane had resigned as deputy prime minister and home minister the same day.
He later reacquired Nepali citizenship. He also returned the Nepali passport acquired using his invalid Nepali citizenship.
