KATHMANDU, Aug 16: Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) chairman Rabi Lamichhane was flown to Kathmandu on Saturday evening on a Buddha Air flight but was taken directly to Nakkhu Prison via an alternative route, leaving hundreds of his supporters at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) without a glimpse of him.
RSP leaders, cadres and supporters had been waiting for hours at the TIA’s main gate, expecting him to exit through the regular route. However, police diverted the convoy through the eastern section of the airport via the Nepal Oil Corporation road to avoid the crowd, taking him straight to Nakkhu Prison in Lalitpur.
Lamichhane had been in judicial custody at Rupandehi Prison since April 7 in connection with the Butwal-based Supreme Cooperative fraud case. Although the court had approved his prison transfer nearly 40 days ago, the process had been stalled. The decision to move him to Kathmandu was made after Lamichhane told a visiting team from the National Human Rights Commission that he felt unsafe in Bhairahawa.
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Upon arrival in Kathmandu, tight security was maintained around the TIA and along the route to Nakkhu. Lamichhane will now serve the remainder of his pre-trial detention there.
Speaking to RSP spokesperson Manish Jha during a brief meeting at Bhairahawa Airport before his transfer, Lamichhane said he was unfazed by what he described as politically motivated actions against him.
“They can take me anywhere, even to Mars, out of political revenge — I will not be afraid. This is my country, my land,” Jha quoted him as saying. “Let them take me wherever they can. It doesn’t matter.”
Marking the transfer on the occasion of Krishna Janmashtami, Lamichhane also left a philosophical note on the wall of his cell in Rupandehi Prison: “Krishna will not be born again. Those who are born must themselves become Krishna.”
The RSP chief, a prominent anti-establishment political figure, has drawn large crowds both in support and opposition amid the ongoing cooperative fraud probe, which continues to stir political controversy.