Reporter at www.sidhakura.com and birgunjcity.com Jiyalal Prasad Sah has been facing charges against cybercrime under the Electronic Transaction Act for his news reporting. Sah has been working from Parsa district.
Freedom Forum received an email from reporter Sah appealing for support and cooperation on November 20. In his email, Sah wrote a letter addressing FF’s chairperson that he had been facing charges for investigative stories since January 9, 2024.
The story was about Birgunj Metropolitan’s Mayor Rajesh Man Singh’s involvement in a fake citizenship case. According to Sah, Mayor Singh helped a girl from a separate family receive a citizenship certificate by descendent with his name as her father.
Reporter Sah had mentioned Singh’s family members’ quotes and administration office’s documents as proof in the story. Following this, Sah had published follow-up stories critical to the Mayor on both news portals.
"After publication of the stories, Mayor Singh had been abusing me indirectly during his speeches in different programs. Thereafter, on September 19, news about the Mayor’s fraudulent activity in the purchase of National flag along with the proof. Again on September 20, 2024 I wrote news about Mayor's involvement in embezzlement of funds for distribution of materials received from health ministry", he added.
Thereafter, Mayor Singh tried to lodge a complaint for crimes as per Electronic Transaction Act. As the police office refused to register his complaint, Singh went to the District Attorney office, Parsa on October 23, 2024 to create pressure on police for initiating action against journalist Sah.
Following his complaint, the Attorney Office wrote to the District Police Office to register the case and initiate investigation as per the Criminal Procedure (Code) Act 2074 on October 23, 2024."
As a result, the police office initiated investigation as per which an arrest warrant was issued against reporter Sah under an offense related to Cybercrime. Later, the case was registered at the District Court, Parsa on November 24, 2024.
Then, reporter Sah was presented at the district court on November 26 and was released with deposit of bail amount Rs. 5000. Again, on December 17 he submitted answers at the court to defend himself against the allegation on defamation charges. Reporter Sah is currently facing three cases- one under ETA 2007, and two on Defamation charges for the news published.
The court has scheduled witness testimony on the cases on January 9. Freedom Forum is providing legal support on the case.
(This page was last updated on January 7, 2024.)
For more,
Freedom Forum
monitoring@freedomforum.org.np