The Kaski District Court has refused to revoke the passport of GB Rai, who is a prime suspect in the embezzlement of deposits of various cooperatives and is currently on the run.
A bench of Judge Hari Prasad Koirala refused to revoke Rai’s passport on Sunday.
District Police Office, Kaski, had filed an application at the court through the Government Attorney Office seeking permission to revoke Rai’s passport. Police had said it was necessary to revoke Rai’s passport for arresting him and bringing him back to Nepal from abroad.
The Government Attorney Office had sought revocation of Rai’s passport according to the Passport Act, 2019.
But the bench of Judge Koirala refused to revoke his passport stating that the provision in Section 12 of the Passport Act is not related to cases of cooperative-related offenses, according to the court’s information officer Suraj Adhikari.
Section 12 (1) (b) of the Act states that a passport may not be issued or may be withheld in the name of a person “upon receipt of an order of the Court not to issue a passport or to withhold a passport in a case sub judice in the court on the charge of offense related to passport, immigration, corruption, money laundering, human trafficking, abduction, narcotic drugs, illegal transaction of arms and ammunition, organized crime or terrorism”.
On Sunday itself, the District Police Office had written to the Department of Passports to suspend Rai’s passport according to Section 12 of the Passport Act, said a police source.
According to Section 12 (1) (d) of the Passport Act, a passport may not be issued or may be withheld in the name of the a person if the person has been blacklisted upon default of payment of the loan of a bank or financial institution.
The Department of Passport said that it is still studying the matter.
