CPN (Maoist) General Secretary Dharmendra Bastola and SP Shah Released from Custody

Kathmandu. Dharmendra Bastola, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (Maoist Centre), and S.P. Shah (Sunil Prasad Shah) from Durga Prasai's faction, who were arrested on charges of obstructing elections, have been released. SP Pawan Bhattarai of the Kathmandu District Police Range informed Ratopati that they were released by court order.

Both were arrested on Falgun 5. The Supreme Court ordered the release of Dharmendra Bastola, and the Patan High Court ordered the release of S.P. Shah. Bastola was arrested by a team from the Valley Crime Investigation Office in Sundhara. Vishnu Prasad Timalsina, the Kavre District Secretary of the Maoist Centre, was also arrested along with him. CPN (Maoist Centre) has been protesting the elections scheduled for Falgun 21.

The other accused, S.P. Shah, had instructed his supporters to set fire to public transport in protest of the arrest of medical businessman Durga Prasai. Durga Prasai, the coordinator of the National, Nationality, Religion, Culture, and Citizen Protection Great Campaign, has also been released by the order of the Supreme Court.