Kathmandu, September 1:

The Kathmandu District Government Office (KDGO) today moved the Supreme Court (SC) challenging 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.