Journalist Ravi Lamichhane has been released on bail of Rs 500,000 on Monday. The Chitwan District Court sought a bail of Rs 500,000 from Lamichhane who was arrested from the office of News24 Television on August 15 on charge of abetting suicide of fellow journalist Shalik Ram Pudasaini. Journalist Yuvaraj Kandel who works with Lamichhane for the television channel has also been released after submitting the bail amount of Rs 300,000, while Ashmita Karki (Ruku) has been released on normal date. The bench of district judge Hemanta Rawal has prohibited the trio from conducting any programs related to the suicide of Pudasaini, on the police investigating the case, public prosecutors filing the case and the judges hearing the case, and even posting status on the social media in relation to that. It has also prohibited the three from leaving the country and said the court permission should be sought if they need to go abroad for treatment. The court has ordered so after recording statements of the trio that started on Sunday, and conducting preliminary hearing after that. The District Attorney Office, Chitwan had filed the case of abetting suicide against the trio on Sunday demanding a jail term of five years and a fine of Rs 50,000 each. Lamichhane has been arrested after a video of Pudasaini before he committed suicide became public. Pudasaini, who now works with Mountain Television, had committed suicide by hanging himself at a Chitwan-based hotel on Monday night. Pudasaini, in the video, has accused three persons including Lamichhane of abetting the suicide. Asmita Karki, another of the accused, has already been arrested. The police, meanwhile, have written to the Nepal Rastra Bank seeking details of the bank accounts of the trio. Pudasaini, in the video recorded before his suicide, had accused Lamichhane of extorting businessmen, crusher entrepreneurs, sand miners and others through his television program.
