Kathmandu, July 3:

A writ petition was filed in the Supreme Court today, seeking a bar on former Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) Pyar Jung Thapa and four other army officials from going abroad.

The petitioner claimed that the army officials cannot fly out as they have been accused of crime against humanity.

In the petition, former vice-president of the Maoists’ student union, ANNISU-R, Krishna KC, demanded a mandamus order to the government authorities in this regard.

KC claimed that the officials are accused of torture during the royal regime and during the state of emergency clamped by former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba. He also claimed that the officials were involved in disappearing 49 detainees.

The Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the ministries of Home, Defence and Foreign Affairs, the Police Headquarters, the Human Rights Cell of the Army Headquarters and the National Human Rights Commission have been made defendants in the case. The petitioner demanded that the passport of the former army chief and army officers Raju Basnet, Bibek Bista, Indibar Rana and Dilip Rayamajhi be seized. “They can flee to any other country any time,” KC said.

According to the petition, the officials had tortured Maoist detainees in the Bhairav Nath Battalion during the royal regime. It said 49 Maoists — including KC, Nishchal Nakarmi, Gyanendra Tripathi, Rajendra Thapa, Dhirendra Basnet and Kaushaliya Pokhrel — had been detained in the barracks then.