KATHMANDU, August 18: Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Ruby Kumari Thakur has filed a police complaint against journalist Kishor Shrestha. She filed the complaint at the District Police Range, Lalitpur, on Monday.
Deputy Speaker Ruby Thakur assumes office
According to SSP Tul Bahadur Karki, chief of the Lalitpur District Police Range, the complaint is related to cybercrime. Speaking to Nagarik, he said, “We have received a complaint alleging that the complainant was defamed through cyber means. The matter is currently under process.”
Shrestha, who was released on personal recognizance earlier Monday following a Supreme Court order, claimed that he had been deliberately framed. He said he had been targeted because of his reporting on suppressed reports and mistakes committed by those in power.
Journalist Shrestha alleged that the state had retaliated against him by turning an ordinary issue involving a photograph posted on Facebook into a case and using it to suppress him in an authoritarian manner.
Shrestha also accused police of raiding his office and confiscating electronic devices as part of a plot to identify confidential sources for his reports. He argued that instead of using legal avenues such as publishing a rebuttal or approaching the Press Council if they disagreed with his reporting, the authorities had carried out an abrupt raid, which he said demonstrated the state's bad faith.
Recalling that he was held in custody for five days alongside alleged drug traffickers, Shrestha said the experience was intended to exert psychological pressure on him. He said he would not be intimidated by such tactics and would continue fighting for investigative journalism and citizens' right to information until his death.
