Friday, September 02, 2005

Govt seeks SC permission to re-arrest Gagan

Kathmandu, Sept 2 - Government prosecutors moved an application demanding student leader Gagan Kumar Thapa be sent to jail on the sedition charge he is currently facing.
The Kathmandu District Government Office (KDGO) has challenged the Special Court order of August 14 to release former general secretary of Nepal Students’ Union Gagan Kumar Thapa.
The KDGO urged the apex court to scrap the Special Court order and remand him in custody again in order to prosecute him in a sedition case filed by the KDGO against him. “We have moved the SC in order to prosecute him in the sedition case,” government lawyer Ramesh Pokhrel said.
“We have also challenged the Special Court claim while releasing him where it observed we had not clearly mentioned the charges against Thapa. But we have produced a CD supporting our case,” Pokhrel said. The government prosecutor had filed a case against Thapa seeking a three-year jail term or a fine of Rs 3,000, or both, accusing him of chanting objectionable slogans against the King and members of the royal family violating Clause 4(1) of the Offence Against State Act, 1989. A three-member bench of judges of the Special Court Govinda Prasad Parajuli, Rana Bahadur Bam and Bhoopdhoj Adhikary, had ordered Thapa’s release saying there was not sufficient ground to detain him. “He be released as per Clause 7(c) of the Special Court Act, 2002 as there was not sufficient evidence to detain him to forward the process on the case,” the bench had observed.
Prosecutors have demanded that the order of the Special Court in August 14 be nullified as it was not appropriate. The Special Court had released Thapa on a general date.
"The Special Court order is not appropriate and it should be nullified," said the application filed by the Office of the Attorney General Thursday.
Thapa was arrested on July 26 on the charge of sedition for chantinganti-king slogans during a July 24 civil society protest rally.

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