Produce Detainees in the court : SC

Kathmandu, Dec 15-Responding to a habeas corpus petition, the Supreme Court today ordered the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) to produce detained Maoist student leader Himal Sharma before the apex court on coming Monday.A division bench of justices Sharada Shrestha and Damodar Prasad Sharma issued the order on thursday.

Himal Sharma is a former general secretary of the Maoist-affiliated ANNISU-R and the security forces had arrested him two years ago. He is in preventive detention under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Control and Punishment Ordinance (TADO) ever since his arrest.

During today’s hearing, senior advocate Bishwo Kanta Mainali, advocates Agni Kharel, Satish Kharel, Bhimarjun Acharya and Tikaram Bhattarai sought the apex court’s order to release him. The advocates contended that Sharma’s imprisonment in preventive detention for two years was illegal.

The bench ordered the army to produce Sharma him before the SC, responding to a report of the NHRC that informed the court regarding Sharma’s detention at Rajdal barrack at Gorkha.
According to Sharma’s lawyer Bhattarai, NHRC had told the SC two months ago that its inspection team deployed to look into the detention centres had found him in the barrack.