Nepal: Media tycoon arrested for 'citizenship misuse'

Kathmandu (Nepal) [India], May 22 : Nepal's media tycoon and chairman of Kantipur Media Group (KMG), Kailash Sirohiya, was arrested for "misuse of citizenship" from his office on Tuesday evening.

A police team, comprising officials from the Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation

office, arrested the media tycoon from the Thapathali-based central office of the media group.

Sirohiya's arrest comes after the Dhanusha District Court issued an arrest warrant against Sirohiya in an alleged citizenship offence case.

A complaint was filed in Dhanusha against Sirohiya, who allegedly put somebody else's citizenship number on his citizenship certificate.

On the registration of the complaint, Sirohiya issued a statement denying

any wrongdoing. In recent weeks, there have been several media reports stating that the citizenship number mentioned in Sirohiya's citizenship certificate matched the one of a Shivji Sahu Teli. Sirohiya, who first obtained his citizenship certificate in the 70s, obtained a duplicate certificate later.

The media tycoon, while being escorted out of his office surrounded by the police on Tuesday evening, reiterated that he was "targeted with a political motive".

"The government demonstrated its authoritarian ways despite my willingness to assist in the investigation. This is an assault on press freedom and I will fight till the end," Sirohiya said.

The Kantipur Media Group, the largest private media conglomerate in the Himalayan

nation, recently covered news stories about the misappropriations of Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane.

Lamichhane is alleged to have misappropriated cooperative funds when he was serving as an office bearer of Galaxy TV.

Earlier, on Tuesday, the media tycoon issued a statement stating his readiness to cooperate in any probe conducted as per the law. He also alleged that an arrest warrant was issued to blackmail Kantipur daily into not publishing more reports on cooperative frauds.

"It is the media's responsibility to raise its voice and demand justice and a fair investigation into all those involved in the embezzlement of the hard-earned savings of more than 7.1 million depositors in various cooperatives," Sirohiya said.

"There is no doubt that the complaint was filed and an arrest warrant against me was issued without any interrogation to blackmail Kantipur into not publishing more reports on the issue and divert public attention," he added.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the largest conglomerate in Nepal said Kantipur will not back down from raising its voice against 'wrongdoings', including the cooperative 'scam'.

"The office bearers who abuse their authority and misuse police administration to exact vengeance against the chairman of a media house based on the news they publish should also answer when there will be an investigation into the individual, who came to power through political bargaining that entailed getting the Attorney General to certify that he would not be prosecuted for holding dual passports," Sirohiya said.

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