The Supreme Court has handed down jail sentences to the editor and publisher of Sidhakura and Raj Kumar Timalsina finding the news website guilty of contempt of court.
According to Achyut Kuikel, spokesperson for the Supreme Court, an extended full bench on Sunday sentenced Raj Kumar Timalsina to prison for six months, and Sidhakura’s publisher Yuvaraj Kandel and editor Nabin Dhungana for three months each.
The full bench comprised Chief Justice Bishowambhar Prasad Shrestha and Justices Prakash Man Singh Raut, Sapana Pradhan Malla, Prakash Kumar Dhungana, Hari Prasad Phuyal, Nahakul Subedi, Binod Sharma, Mahesh Sharma Paudel and Bal Krishna Dhakal.
Since Sidhakura repeatedly disseminated misleading content without checking for facts and truth, it cannot be called mere negligence, the court has ruled. Therefore, the court has sentenced publisher Kandel and editor Dhungana to three months’ imprisonment for obstructing the administration of justice by spreading rumors about the court and judges.
The court has also slapped a fine of Rs 5,000 on Sidhakura, Kuikel said.
The verdict mentions that Kandel and Dhungana apologized during their statement to the bench saying they did not intend to disrespect the court. But the apology is not unconditional, the court has said. The court has ordered them to be imprisoned for only seven days if they make an unconditional apology for having acted in contempt of the court and express commitment in writing to not repeat such acts in the future. They must serve the prison sentence of three months if they don’t apologize, the court says in its verdict.
The apex court has ordered Timalsina to be imprisoned for six months, saying he did not show remorse or apologize during the proceedings of the case. According to legal provisions, the court can also pardon the punishment if one apologizes.
Sidhakura had published a news report titled ‘Sting operation of meeting including SC justice for dismissing over 400 corruption cases’ on April 26 incriminating SC justices and others.
Timalsina had provided the audio recording for transmission.
On April 29, the Supreme Court had ordered Sidhakura to remove the news report incriminating SC justices within 24 hours and not to publish any follow-up material or rebroadcast the material. The court had also ordered police to investigate the audio content published by Sidhakura.
The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police had initiated investigation on the issue on the court’s instruction.
Nepal Police had formed a six-member committee headed by Deputy Inspector General Nabinda Aryal, chief of the Cyber Bureau, to investigate the audio content of the “Dark File” series as per the Supreme Court’s order. The committee concluded that the audio was fake.
The investigation report stated that Timalsina, who provided the audio to Sidhakura, had recorded the audio himself on the morning of April 17 and emailed it the same evening.
The report mentioned that only Timilsina’s voice matched while none of the other voices named in the audio content matched during examination.
Police had also visited the place where the audio was said to have been recorded.
A case was also filed against the three at the Kathmandu District Court on June 28. They were charged under the Electronic Transactions Act and also with the offense of insulting behavior.
