National
Court grants bail to journalist Dil Bhusan Pathak in cybercrime case
Kathmandu District Court announces Rs25,000 bail after hearing on controversial cyber offence charge.
Post Report
The Kathmandu District Court on Thursday granted journalist Dil Bhusan Pathak a bail of Rs25,000 in connection with a cybercrime case filed against him earlier this week.
A single bench of judge Khemraj Bhatta issued the order following a detention hearing held the same day after.
With this order, Pathak can now fight the case staying outside detention as the court didn’t consider any need for sending him to judicial custody.
The charge, filed by the Kathmandu District Court, sought up to five years’ imprisonment or a fine of up to Rs100,000, or both.
The district attorney’s office had filed the charge based on a complaint lodged under a pseudonym, alleging that Pathak violated Section 47 of the Electronic Transactions Act, 2008, by disseminating illegal content in electronic form.
Pathak had been placed on the police’s list of absconders after the complaint was initially filed. The case stems from a segment aired on his programme Tough Talk, titled “Hiltonma Jaiveer Deubako Paisa” (“Jaiveer Deuba’s Money in Hilton”), which raised questions about the alleged involvement of Jaiveer Singh Deuba in share transactions related to the Hilton Hotel, Kathmandu.
Jaiveer Singh Deuba, son of Nepali Congress president and former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and current Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba, had previously lodged a complaint at the Cyber Bureau, accusing Pathak of defamation and character assassination.
However, the Patan High Court last month had issued an interim order instructing authorities not to detain Pathak without legal grounds.