Kathmandu, April 11:

Former minister Bhekh Bahadur Thapa has recently filed a defamation and contempt of court case at the Kathmandu District Court (KDC) against his former son-in-law Ciarán Ó Faoláin accusing him of defaming him and contempting the court’s few-month-old order on a case regarding the custody of his granddaughter.

“I have recently filed a case against him,” Thapa told this daily today. “Faolain has been involved in defaming me by giving false statements to media and writing baseless letters to political leaders against me,” he added.

Faoláin had filed an application to the royal palace and wrote letters to leaders of Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and Nepali Congress (Democratic) accusing Thapa of hatching conspiracy to secure the custody of his granddaughter Maya.

Tejshree, the daughter of the former minister, has been taking the custody of her daughter Maya after Faolain and she divorced last year. They had tied the knot in 1999 in the United States.

The KDC permitted Tejshree to take custody of Maya some nine months ago. “She secured the court permission by producing a number of false claims,” Faoláin had told this daily a few weeks ago. “It is a contemptuous statement against the KDC ruling and a bid to defame me,” Thapa said.