Kantipur Media Group Chairman Kailash Sirohiya has stated that the complaint registered against him at Dhanusha was filed at the behest of someone to exact vengeance. While defending himself at Dhanusha District Attorney Office, Sirohiya said that he has a single citizenship card and that some people were trying to mislead by spreading baseless rumours of him being in possession of multiple citizenship cards.

Here are his 10-point statements:

1. I claim that Indrajit Mahato filed the complaint [against me at the District Police Office, Dhanusha] at the behest of someone to exact vengeance. I saw him only after a picture became public showing him talking to Home Minister Lamichhane and Rastriya Swatantra Party lawmaker Manish Jha at a single table.

2. I have acquired only a single citizenship card but some people are trying to mislead general people by spreading a baseless rumour that I have multiple citizenship certificates. However, police and government attorneys haven’t made this allegation against me.

3. My responsibility is to keep the citizenship certificate safe and not misuse it. The relevant agency should take full responsibility if the government records are altered due to someone’s carelessness or ill intent.

4. It is not my authority to issue the citizenship number. I have no role if the number matches someone else’s. A rumour has been spread saying there is no date and signature of the official who approved my citizenship certificate but all these details are there in my citizenship card.

5. I am a citizen by descent because I was born after my father got citizenship. The types of citizenship certificates for the children might have been different based on their birth before and after he [father] acquired the citizenship as per the law. The government can answer it on the basis of the law.

6. I was born on December 14, 1962, and I obtained a citizenship certificate on September 10, 1979. It is the authorised official who should know about the age and the eligibility factors. These aren’t decided as per my interest and choice.

7. The official at the citizenship section stated my age as 18 years while the certifying official added December 14, 1962 inside brackets to further clarify it and there are two signatures on both sides of it. Red ink is used for that. Some people have spread a message claiming that there are some altercations just based on a photocopy of the document they have got.

8. Had the authority written a letter, I would have been present in person carrying the citizenship certificate. But I have been arrested from the media house, where I am the chairman, using armed police, which is a misuse of state authority

9. There is absolutely no debate on Kailash Sirohiya’s citizenship. Instead, this is pure vengeance against news coverage on Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane’s dual citizenship, holding passports of two different countries and embezzlement of savings of depositors of multiple cooperatives.

10. The investigation on misuse of passports falls under the jurisdiction of the Home Ministry. Ironically Lamichhane, who is holding passports of two different countries, is home minister and he has been intimidating sovereign citizens of the country.

(Abridged version of the statement issued by KMG Chairman Kailash Sirohiya’s lawyer in Janakpur)