The Dhanusha District Court on Friday extended the remand of Kantipur Media Group Chairman Kailash Sirohiya by three days.

A single bench of Judge Romakanta Gyawali allowed the district police office to keep Sirohiya in custody until Sunday for further investigation.

Court registrar Kailash Bhattarai said the bench extended the remand until Sunday.

Police on Tuesday arrested Sirohiya, weeks after Indrajit Mahato, a cadre of Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane’s Rastriya Swatantra Party, filed a complaint at the Dhanusha district police office that the number on Sirohiya’s citizenship certificate was the same as that on another person’s citizenship certificate.

On Wednesday, police had presented the KMG chair before the court, seeking a 10-day remand to investigate a case related to his citizenship card. But the court authorised his remand for three days.

Police on Friday had sought five more days for the investigation but the court gave three days. However, senior advocates argued Sirohiya was arrested illegally and there was no need to hold him in custody on a citizenship-related issue.

Senior advocates Shambhu Thapa, Raman Shrestha, Sher Bahadur KC, Govind Sharma Bandi and Tikaram Bhattarai; and advocates Raman Kumar Karna, Kishore Paudel and Dipendra Jha had pleaded on Sirohiya’s behalf.

They said there was ample ground to prove that Sirohiya was arrested only because the outlets of Kantipur Media Group extensively reported on the cooperative fraud in which Home Minister Lamichhane was involved. Therefore, he must be released unconditionally, they demanded.

After hours-long hearing, Judge Gyawali decided to extend the remand by three days.

Kantipur daily extensively covered the issues of embezzlement of tens of millions of rupees of multiple cooperatives by Gorkha Media Network, which was jointly run by Gitendra Babu (GB) Rai and Lamichhane.

Lamichhane, who left the media to launch the Rastriya Swatantra Party in 2022, has severely criticised the KMG for a series of reports on his alleged involvement in the scams.

Against this backdrop, RSP worker Mahato had filed the complaint at the Dhanusha district police office.

He repeatedly attacked Kantipur Media Group from various platforms as the publication didn’t stop disclosing more facts showing his involvement in the scams.

The custody extension comes despite national and international media organisations, rights bodies, business fraternity and leaders condemning the authorities’ move.

Protest programmes have been organised in various districts of Madhesh Province including Dhanusha, demanding Sirohiya’s immediate release.

According to sources, the police had initially backtracked on the plan to investigate the matter after failing to obtain strong evidence against Sirohiya. However, Home Minister Lamichhane had strongly pushed the case, also convincing the prime minister for that, said the sources.

“He even threatened to quit the government if he was not supported in his plan to arrest Sirohiya,” said a source privy to the development. “Then the prime minister became ready for it for the sake of saving the government.”

Assistant Inspector General Shyam Gyawali fully supported the home minister in his plan.

After widespread criticism of the arrest, the prime minister had publicly said that Sirihoya “will be released soon as he is innocent”. However, later in a meeting with a group of editors, he admitted to allowing the home administration to make the arrest. Another chief of the ruling CPN-UML, KP Sharma Oli, said there was no need to make a ‘hue and cry’ over the arrest.

Lamichhane’s RSP, issuing a statement, argued that there was nothing wrong in arresting a person with a court’s permission.