Police have been granted four days to investigate Mahiman Singh Bista, the Supreme Court employee who wrote an unauthorized letter to arrest Nagarik Unmukti Party patron Resham Chaudhary.
On Friday, the Kathmandu District Court granted permission to the police to keep Bista in custody for four days for investigation, said Superintendent of Police Apil Raj Bohara at the District Police Range, Kathmandu.
Bista has admitted to the police that he wrote the unauthorized letter. After completing their investigation on Bista, the police will present him before the District Government Attorney's Office to record his statement.
After he wrote the letter to arrest Chaudhary on Wednesday, the Supreme Court itself had written to the police and the Dilli Bazar Prison Office, stating that his letter was unauthorized.
The Supreme Court has demanded an investigation and action against Bista under Sections 84, 87, and 276 of the National Penal (Code) Act, 2017.
Section 84 prohibits providing false information. “No person shall give any false information to any one, with intent to prevent any public servant from doing any act which he or she is bound by law to do or to cause such public servant to do anything which he or she need not or ought not to do,” Section 84 (1) of the Act states.
Section 84 (2) says that any person who commits such an offense shall be liable to a sentence of imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or a fine not exceeding 10,000 rupees or both the sentences.
The apex court has written to the police to also take action against Bista under Section 87 for disobeying orders. “No person shall disobey an order made by a competent authority in accordance with law, by omitting to do anything ought to be done under law or doing anything prohibited by law,” says Section 87 (1).
The offense carries a prison sentence of up to six months or a fine of up to 5,000 rupees or both.
Additionally, the Supreme Court has recommended action against Bista for offenses related to documents under Section 276, which prohibits forgery. It states, “No one shall commit or cause to be committed forgery.”
The section further explains that a person who makes a false document or false electronic record or a part or portion of a document or electronic record, with intent to cause any harm, injury or damage to the public or to any person or to render any benefit to the person himself or herself or to any person shall be considered to commit forgery.
According to Section 276 (3) (b), forgery of a judgment or order of a court carries a penalty of up to eight years in prison and a fine of up to 80,000 rupees.
On Wednesday morning, a team led by a deputy superintendent of police from the District Police Range, Kathmandu, arrested Resham Chaudhary from the Nepal Academy premises in Kamaladi of Kathmandu.
Chaudhary had arrived at the Nepal Academy for an event organized to formally announce the unification of the Nagarik Unmukti Party and the Janamat Party.
The police said that Chaudhary was arrested to enforce a Supreme Court verdict. However, it later emerged that Bista himself had written the letter and personally delivered it to the District Police Range and the Dilli Bazar Prison Office.
The police are investigating why Bista committed such forgery. In his preliminary statement, Bista reportedly said, “I wrote it due to the pain of the Tikapur incident.”
