Another re-arrest

Surkhet, Jan 3- Police on monday arrested four prisoners immediately after the Surkhet Appellate Court ordered their release.Earlier, the four prisoners were released on the order of a joint bench comprising of acting chief judge of the court Ramji Prasad Tripathi and judge Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana.

The bench was hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by the relatives of the prisoners. But no sooner were the four freed, plainclothes policemen rearrested them in front of the relatives who were gathered on the court premises to hear the verdict.

Bhim Bahadur BK, a resident of Lekhgaun in Surkhet, Lila Bahadur Bogati of Kushdari, Surkhet, and Gauri BK of Lekhfarsa and Manroop Khatri of Chilkhaya in Kalikot had been arrested by the security forces in 2004 on allegations of being Maoists.

Plainclothes policemen had been deployed in large numbers since morning to re-arrest the prisoners. The relatives of the Maoist suspects seemed aware of this and tried to foil the police’s attempt to rearrest them. In a bid to free the prisoners, around two dozen women sustained minor injuries.