Police have released Ram Kumari Jhakri, a leader of the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-Madhav Kumar Nepal faction of Nepal Communist Party, who was arrested earlier on Thursday on charges of crime against the state.

After her arrest, she was kept at the Metropolitan Crime Division, Min Bhawan. Police had issued an arrest warrant and arrested Jhakri from her residence in Shankhamul after she refused to come to the police station for questioning.

“Actually we had arrested her following a complaint of All Nepal Women’s Association for false accusation against the President during her speech at Gorkha,” said SP Krishna Prasad Koirala, spokesperson at the Metropolitan Crime Division. “We have released her after interrogation.”

Koirala said Jhakri, during questioning, had said her respect for the President was intact and therefore she was released.

However, following her release Jhakri said the government was forced to release her due to extreme pressure from the public.

There was widespread condemnation of her arrest saying that the government tried to curb freedom of speech.

“There is no such law that restricts citizens from criticising the activities of the President,” said Radheshyam Adhikari, an advocate who is also a member of the National Assembly representing Nepali Congress. “Arresting a lawmaker for her peaceful reaction is a severe violation of freedom of speech and condemnable”

A team of the National Human Rights Commission had visited the Crime Division and met both Jhakri and Police officers and took stock of her interrogation.

Youths wielding wooden planks had taken to the streets after police arrested Jhakri from her Shankhamul residence. The protesters had clashed with police after they tried to break through to the prohibited area at Baneshwor in front of the parliament building.