Early on Sunday morning, reports emerged that former chief justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana had been arrested by police.

A senior police official initially confirmed that Rana had been detained from his residence in Maharajgunj but declined to provide a reason. Kantipur and The Kathmandu Post also reported that Rana had been arrested.

But several hours later, police offered a different account, saying Rana had been taken to a safe place because of a security concern.

That leaves a crucial question unanswered: Was Rana arrested, or was he taken into protective custody because of a perceived security threat?

What we know

At around 3am on Sunday, police officers came to Rana’s residence in Maharajgunj while he and his family were sleeping.

According to a family member, officials from the Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office told Rana that there was a security threat against him.

The family member said Rana, who was unaware of any such threat, asked the police to reinforce the security personnel at his residence instead.

When police insisted that he accompany them, Rana said he would put on some clothes and come, according to the family member.

“The police officials then said, ‘Come with us, nothing will happen,’” the family member said. “They took him, saying he would be back shortly.”

A senior police official later confirmed that Rana had been detained.

At around 9am, however, Rameshwar Karki, an SP at the Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office, told Kantipur that Rana had been brought to the office after police sensed a security challenge.

“He is staying at a safe place,” Karki said.

Rana’s family said they had not been told what charges, if any, he was facing or why he had been taken.

What we don’t know

It remains unclear whether Rana was formally arrested or detained for his protection.

Police initially confirmed his detention, while a later account from the Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office described the action as being prompted by a security threat.

Police have not publicly explained the nature of the alleged security threat, who or what posed the threat, or why Rana needed to be taken from his residence.

It is also unclear whether any criminal case or investigation has been initiated against him.

The circumstances surrounding the police action raise several questions: What was the specific security threat? Why was Rana taken from his residence rather than additional security being deployed there, as he requested? Was he legally arrested or was he placed in protective custody? And what role was the Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office playing in the operation?

Why Rana’s detention matters

If Rana was formally arrested, as initially reported, it would be an unprecedented development in Nepal’s judicial history, as no former chief justice has previously been arrested, according to available accounts.

Rana became chief justice on January 1, 2019. Parliament registered an impeachment motion against him on February 13, 2022, after which he was suspended.

The impeachment motion remained pending in Parliament for an extended period. After the parliamentary session ended, the then secretary-general of the Federal Parliament Secretariat declared the motion inactive.

A writ petition challenging that decision was subsequently filed at the Supreme Court. On September 9, the Supreme Court’s Constitutional Bench ruled that the impeachment motion against Rana had lost its purpose and dismissed the petition. The four-member bench, led by Chief Justice Manoj Kumar Sharma, issued the ruling while dismissing four writ petitions related to the case.

For now, however, the immediate issue is more basic: why was Rana taken from his home in the middle of the night, and under what legal status?