Freedom Forum is concerned over the arrest of a school's principal under cyber crime offense by Nepal Police. Sindhupalchowk based Fatakshila Secondary School's Principal Ishwor Kumar Chaulagain was arrested for posting a distorted image of President Bidhya Devi Bhandari and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on May 7. The incident took place at Sindhupalchowk district that lies in Province 3 of Nepal.
As per the information received by Freedom Forum, Chaulagain had uploaded the image of President Bhandari and PM Oli which spread false impression on his social media site- Facebook on May 6. Later, he deleted the post following wide criticism on his post.
According to the press release issued from Metropolitan Crime Division Kathmandu, Chaulagain has been charged under Section 47 of Electronic Transaction Act, 2008 for affecting the social solidarity and public moral.
FF believes as the accused had already deleted the content from his social media page, charging him under electronic Transaction Act is a sheer misuse of authority. The case could be filed under public offense mentioned under Civil Code rather than making it the criminal offense.
FF hereby urges the concerned authority to identify the issue seriously and resort appropriate legal action to the accused.
For more information,
Freedom Forum
monitoring@freedomforum.org.np
01/412030/ 4102022