The Supreme Court has refused to release medical entrepreneur Durga Prasai.
According to Govinda Prasad Ghimire, information officer at the Supreme Court, a single bench of Justice Prakash Man Singh Raut on Tuesday refused to order Prasai’s release.
On Monday, Prasai’s son Nirajan had filed a habeas corpus petition at the apex court seeking his release. Nirajan had named the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the Cyber Bureau of Nepal Police as defendants in the petition.
Responding to the petition on Tuesday, Justice Raut’s bench issued a show cause notice ordering the defendants to submit a written response within 15 days.
A complaint had been filed against Prasai accusing him of making offensive statements on social media and of character assassination.
On Wednesday, the Kathmandu District Court had issued an arrest warrant against Prasai, Jeevan Pandey and Prakash Chandra Dahal.
A team from the Cyber Bureau arrested Prasai from his residence in Bhaktpur on Sunday afternoon. Later the same day, the Kathmandu District Court remanded him to custody for three days according to Section 47 of the Electronic Transactions Act.
Prasai has been involved in many controversies and in the past has campaigned for non-payment of bank loans. He has also made disparaging remarks against students studying medicine in Bangladesh in the past and has levied outrageous allegations against leaders from many political parties.
Prasai’s bodyguards Deepak Khadka and Ram Kumar Dhimal were arrested from the Supreme Court premises in March when they were entering the court for a hearing related to Prasai. Along with the gun, police also recovered two small magazines, two big magazines, one magazine holder, and 100 rounds of bullet inside a black bag from the two.
They were later charged under the Arms and Ammunition Act.
