Kathmandu, September 27: After spending nearly 12 hours at a police office, former Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana was quietly released by the police.
The Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office took Cholendra away from the police office in a black car at around 1:45 p.m. today. He had been brought to the police office at around 2 a.m. and spent nearly 12 hours there.
SP and spokesperson Rameshwor Karki of the same office, said that Cholendra had been released from the custody and handed over to his family. According to police sources, he is currently at his home in Maharajgunj, Bansbari.
He was brought to the office at around 2 a.m. but did not sleep. After morning, Cholendra also held discussions with the SSP, SP and DSPs. He was served tea and snacks at the office. During his 12 hours there, he reportedly spent most of his time talking with police officers.
Police sources claim that his detention cannot technically be described as an arrest because he was brought from his home in the middle of the night without being served an emergency arrest warrant. “There was no arrest warrant from the court, and we did not issue an emergency arrest warrant either,” a police source said.
Police had reached former Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana’s residence in Maharajgunj at around 12:30 a.m. A team led by a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) arrived at the residence around midnight, creating a commotion. Since the area falls under the jurisdiction of the Maharajgunj police unit, the local police were also informed.
The DSP-led team that arrived at the former chief justice’s residence at around 12:30 a.m. asked Rana to accompany them to the police office. He initially flatly refused the request.
The police told him that there was a security threat and asked him to go to the police office. Rana refused. According to police sources, it was only after about an hour and a half of consultation that the police took former Chief Justice Rana from his residence.
Around a dozen plainclothes police officers under the command of a DSP from the Crime Investigation Office had gone to Rana’s residence. At around 2 a.m., he was taken in a police vehicle to the Crime Investigation Office in Teku.
The police have maintained that Rana was taken into custody because of a security threat. SSP Khadka of the Crime Investigation Office insists that it would not be appropriate to describe the action as an arrest. “He was not arrested. We brought him to the office for his security. Now that security arrangements have been made, he has been released.”
However, judging by the manner in which the police took him into custody, it does not appear that he was taken away because of a security threat. There is already a security protocol for former high-ranking officials, and if there had been a security threat, additional security personnel could have been deployed.
Despite this, security experts argue that taking him from his residence in the middle of the night cannot simply be justified by citing security concerns. Former Nepal Police DIG Hemant Malla says that no matter what argument the police put forward, the action cannot be justified as an arrest.
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