The Kathmandu District Court on Friday ordered the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police to release Nepali Congress lawmaker Sunil Sharma and continue the investigation for his alleged possession of a dubious academic certificate of the intermediate level. The CIB had arrested Sharma, a medical doctor, on Thursday. Sharma was elected to the House of Representatives from Constituency 3 of Morang last November.

Judge Dandapani Sharma ordered the CIB to continue the investigation by keeping Sharma out of custody. The CIB, through the district attorney's office, had produced Sharma in the court for an extension of his custody for further investigation. As Sharma is a member of Parliament, it was not necessary to detain him for investigation, said judge Sharma.

Following the court order, police released Sharma on Friday evening. The CIB has been conducting “operation foxtrot” targeting those who used fake or forged academic certificates to pursue higher-education and jobs.

But the court has ordered the authorities to continue detaining the other seven doctors who are facing similar accusations as Sharma and were arrested on Thursday and Friday.

Earlier on Friday afternoon, Nepali Congress objected to the arrest of its lawmaker Sharma. The arrest comes just as he has been speaking out against the government’s inability to curb gold smuggling.

“The arrest of Sharma was illegal and against parliamentary practice,” Shyam Ghimire, a Nepali Congress lawmaker said on Friday after the meeting of the party’s parliamentary committee. “Several of our lawmakers who spoke at the meeting termed Sharma’s arrest as an act of revenge.”

Sharma, in Parliament and in public, had been demanding the resignations of Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha and Finance Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat claiming that they both should be held responsible for the recent smuggling of over 100 kg of gold from Hong Kong. The gold was seized last month after it had passed the airport customs.

“At a time when the Parliament session is going on, why was the government so keen to arrest him?” asked Ghimire.

“They could have just taken his statement. Why did they have to put him in custody? Our understanding was that this was done out of revenge. The home minister has to answer this in Parliament and in public,” said Ghimire. Some lawmakers said that Nepal is heading towards guided democracy like Pakistan.

The latest activities of the government are really worrisome and it is following the Pakistani model of sending opposition party leaders to jail, said Arzu Rana Deuba, another Nepali Congress lawmaker.

Sharma was produced in court on Friday. He complained that the police misbehaved with him and also beat him up.

Rana compared the present situation with India and Pakistan. “Such incidents would happen in India and Pakistan. One party leads the government while the other looks for scandals and leaders are jailed. Another party comes to power and repeats the same. We are now seeing the same tendency in Nepal too. I am sad and worried that select Nepali Congress leaders are being persecuted,” said Deuba.

Rana also faced accusations of being connected to individuals arrested in the fake Bhutanese refugee scam.

Audio clips circulating on social media alleged Rana’s ties to the individuals.

As per the complaints registered at the Nepal Medical Council, some doctors had used fake academic certificates of the proficiency certificate level to sit the MBBS entrance examinations. The certificates were found not verified by the National Examination Board, the CIB said in the information provided to the Parliament secretariat.

The CIB has claimed that it received a letter from the National Examination Board on July 21, 2021, regarding Sharma’s academic certificates.

Our party’s meeting expressed concerns over whether Nepal is following the path of Bangladesh, Pakistan, Philippines, and Malaysia where the outgoing prime minister and opposition party leaders are sent to jail, said Rajendra Bajagain, a Congress lawmaker.

The meeting also discussed the ongoing obstruction in Parliament led by the main opposition, CPN-UML, over the recent gold smuggling scam. The UML is demanding a high-level probe into the gold smuggling case while the government wants the police to conduct the investigation.

The government is being criticised for not initiating an investigation for organised crime even after it was revealed that the smuggling was taking place in a well-planned manner with the involvement of people from multiple countries. Initially, the Department of Revenue Investigation was probing the matter but after pressure from different quarters, the government has handed over the responsibility to the CIB, a special arm of the Nepal Police that is well-equipped to investigate organised crime.

“Let’s hand over the gold smuggling probe to a parliamentary committee,” Ramesh Lekhak, chief whip of the party said, adding, “the State Affairs Committee can undertake the investigation. But the ongoing investigation by the police should not be hampered,” he added.