Exiled pro-democracy Bhutanese leader Tek Nath Rizal, who was granted bail in the fake Bhutanese refugees scam by the Patan High Court, is still in the Central Jail.
The joint bench of judges Janak Pandey and Prakash Kharel hearing different petitions filed by 20 defendants against the Kathmandu District Court’s order to send them to judicial custody had ordered release of Rizal on a bail of Rs 1.50 million on December 1.
Six others in the case were also granted bail by the bench and have duly been released after submitting their respective bail amounts. But Rizal has not submitted his and is still in jail.
“He has not showed much interest in posting the bail amount. He has said that he does not have that much money to pay bail amount. He says that he is fine even here,” Jailer at the Central Jail, Sundhara Lalit Basnet told Setopati. “He says ‘I would get out if any relative were to pay the bail amount. I am fine here otherwise’.”
Rizal’s wife regularly visits him at the jail while other relatives and friends also turn up at times.
Jailer Basnet says he studies books at the jail’s library and jot down things sometimes. “It may well be preparations to write a book.”
The bench had ordered that CPN-UML leader Top Bahadur Rayamajhi be kept in judicial custody along with former secretary Tek Narayan Pandey, Sanu Bhandari and Keshav Dulal.
The judges, meanwhile, had differed on whether to release former home minister and Nepali Congress (NC) leader Bal Krishna Khand on bail or not and another bench would take a call on that.
While Pandey had opined that Khand be released on a bail of Rs 3 million Kharel stated that he should be kept in custody.
Similarly, Khand’s personal secretary Narendra KC and president of Nepal Hajj Committee Shamsher Miya were ordered to be released on a bail of Rs 1 million each, Rayamajhi’s son Sandeep on Rs 3 million and Ram Sharan KC on Rs 1.50 million.
The bench had also ordered released Laxmi Maharjan and Ashish Budathoki on date. The Kathmandu District Court had earlier ordered her release on a bail of Rs 500,000.
The District Government Attorney’s Office (DGAO), Kathmandu, has made 30 individuals defendants in the case. Twenty of them have already been arrested while 10 others are still at large. The DGAO had filed cases of fraud, organized crime, forgery and offense against the state against them on May 24 on the basis of the investigation report submitted by the police.
The Kathmandu District Court had ordered to send 17 of them to judicial custody and released three on bail.
The 20 defendants then moved the Patan High Court against the Kathmandu District Court’s order.
