KATHMANDU, Dec 1: The Nepal Republic Media Pvt Ltd (NRM) on Monday filed an appeal in the Patan High Court seeking punishment to former chief of the state-owned Sajha Prakashan, Dolindra Prasad Sharma, for defaming NRM's managing director Binod Raj Gyawali and Nagarik’s editor Guna Raj Luitel in a book authored by him.
Advocate Pratibha Uprety, the power-of-attorney of Gyawali and Ananta Raj Luitel filed the appeal seeking the High Court's review of the case as the Kathmandu District Court (KDC) partially made mistake in its decision even after convicting Sharma of committing defamation.
Sajha GM files libel case against Nepal Republic Media
The KDC had directed the former chief of the state-owned Sajha Prakashan Dolindra Prasad Sharma to remove the names of Nepal Republic Media Pvt. Ltd. (NRM) Managing Director Binod Raj Gyawali and the Editor of Nagarik Daily Guna Raj Luitel from his controversial book.
In response to a libel suit filed by NRM against Sharma, a single bench of judge Pushpa Raj Thapaliya had directed Sharma to remove the names of Gyawali, Editor Luitel, and journalist of Nagarik daily Basanta Khadka and then journalist of Republica Daily Bishnu Prasad Aryal. Although the case was decided almost a year ago, the full text of the judgment was publicized only recently.
While concluding that the publication of the names of NRM Managing Director and journalists of Nagarik and Republica dailies are guided by ill-intention, the bench directed Sharma to correct the names in the next editions of the book entitled, Badalbhitrako Gham.
The NRM had filed the libel suit against Sharma two years ago after Sharma falsely claimed that the newspaper blackmailed him while publishing news against him. In the lawsuit, the publisher and journalists of NRM claimed that Sharma devoted 11 pages (pages 181-191) in his controversial book to make baseless allegations against the NRM publisher, editor, and journalists. The appeal sought the High Court to correct the partial mistake made by the District Court and punish Sharma for his offense as it had already convicted him of committing the crime.
