Senior Advocate Agni Kharel Challenges Legality of Arrests of KP Sharma Oli and Ramesh Lekhak

Kathmandu. Senior Advocate Agni Kharel has argued that the arrest of former Prime Minister and CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli and former Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak is illegal.

On Monday, while presenting arguments on behalf of Oli and Lekhak, he stated that the government had selectively arrested the two individuals in the habeas corpus writ. The habeas corpus writ is being heard by a joint bench of Supreme Court Justices Binod Sharma and Sunil Kumar Pokharel. 

'If the arrests were made based on the First Information Report (FIR), then the current Prime Minister Balendra Shah and Home Minister Sudan Gurung should also have been addressed, as FIRs against them were filed, shelved, and later revived,' he said. 'Why were only two people arrested from the names mentioned in the FIR? If the basis of the FIR is to be accepted, why were the current Prime Minister and Home Minister not arrested for the events of Bhadau 23 and 24?' 

Interrupting Kharel during the debate, Justice Binod Sharma countered by asking, 'Does the FIR not specifically request action against only these two individuals?'

Responding to Justice Sharma's question, Kharel said, 'That is exactly why I called it selective, Your Honor. Once the decision was made to revive the shelved case, why were not all individuals named in the FIR arrested?'