Kathmandu, April 26

Police today refused to lodge a first information report against two ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) lawmakers Mahesh Basnet and Krishna Kumar Shrestha and former inspector general of Nepal Police Sarbendra Khanal when lawmaker of the newly formed Janata Samajwadi Party-Nepal Surendra Yadav today went to Metropolitan Police Range, Teku, accusing them of abduction.

Top leaders of JSP-N, including former prime minister Baburam Bhattarai, Hishila Yami, Upendra Yadav, Rajendra Shrestha and Rajendra Mahato had accompanied Yadav to the police office to lodge the FIR.

In the FIR draft Yadav has accused the trio of forcibly bringing him from his house in Mahottari district on April 23 and holding him hostage at Marriot Hotel in Kathmandu, according to JSP-N leader Keshav Jha.

Jha said his party was consulting lawyers on how they could legally challenge police’s refusal to register the FIR.

Bhattarai wrote an angry post on Twitter after police refused to lodge the FIR. “If police refuse to register an FIR by a lawmaker whose abduction has created ripples in and outside the country, how can one believe that the rule of law will be upheld and people’s lives protected under Oli’s rule.”

JSP-N leader Rajendra Mahato said the refusal by police to register the FIR was evidence that there was no rule of law in the country. “We will go to the people of the country to seek justice. We will organise street protest against police’s refusal to register the FIR,” he said.

JSP-N leader Keshav Jha said Senior Superintendent of Police Shyam Lal Gyawaly, who heads the police office, left the office after he came to know that JSP-N leaders were coming to lodge an FIR against the three persons. Other police officials made JSP-N leaders wait for more than an hour before refusing to lodge the FIR.

Jha said as per Section 46 of the new Criminal Procedure Code, a victim can lodge an FIR from the district s/he was abducted or from the district where conspiracy was hatched or where the crime was committed.

Jha alleged that SSP Gyawaly refused to register the FIR, saying they should go to Mahottari district to lodge the FIR or challenge his refusal in a court of law.

Police officials of Metropolitan Police Range, Teku, could not be contacted for comments.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on April 27, 2020 of The Himalayan Times.