Kathmandu, February 19:

The Supreme Court today refused to free journalists Rishi Dhamala, Subhak Mahato and Birendra Kumar Mahato who were arrested on February 3 on the charge of extortion, affiliation with outlawed Ranabir Sena and involvement in a blast in Kathmandu last year.

The apex court also upheld the detention authority of Chief District Officer on whose order the three journalists were arrested and sent to police remand.

A three-member special bench comprising Justices Min Bahadur Rayamajhi, Kalyan Shrestha and Gauri Dhakal also annulled a habeas corpus petition filed on behalf of Freedom Forum for the journalists’ release.

The bench noted that there was no need for SC intervention to free the journalists as the investigation into charges against them had reached a new height.

“The Arms and Ammunition Act, 1963, authorises the CDOs to exercise judicial power and therefore there is no sufficient ground to say that the detention of the journalists at the CDO’s order is illegal,” the bench said. The apex court also stated that their arrest could not be termed as illegal as legitimate arrest warrants had been served while arresting them. The bench also upheld the investigating authority’s power to arrest anyone even without specifying any provision of any specific Act in the arrest warrant. Challenging their arrests, the habeas corpus petition was filed on February 4, the day after their arrest.

Earlier, a division bench of justices Abadhesh Kumar Yadav and Bharat Raj Upreti had referred the case to the special bench, citing serious constitutional and legal questions raised in the case. Dhamala’s lawyers had argued that the Kathmandu CDO did not have the right to send anyone to remand as the interim constitution did not grant such authority to CDOs.

They questioned the motive of the government behind the arrests. They had claimed that the government did not have the authority to detain anyone without informing the arrestee about his/her crime and under which law he/she was detained.

Harihar Dahal, Madhav Banskota, Upendra Keshari, Bhimarjun Acharya, Tikaram Bhattarai, Devendra Nepali and Rishiram Ghimire were some of the advocates who pleaded on behalf of the journalists.

Deputy Attorney General Kumar Chundal and Joint Government Attorney Yuba Raj Subedi, however, argued that the investigators had gathered sufficient evidences to detain the journalists.