Kathmandu, July 4: The Kathmandu District Court has granted journalist Dil Bhusan Pathak release on bail of Rs 25,000 in a cybercrime case registered earlier this week.
The order was issued on Thursday by a single bench presided over by Judge Khemraj Bhatta following a detention hearing held the same day. With the bail decision, Pathak is allowed to remain out of custody while the legal proceedings continue, as the court did not find sufficient grounds to place him in judicial detention.
The charges brought against him under the Electronic Transactions Act, 2008, allege a breach of Section 47 for disseminating unlawful electronic content. The Kathmandu District Attorney’s Office filed the case based on a complaint lodged anonymously. If convicted, the law allows for up to five years in prison, a fine of up to Rs 100,000, or both.
Initially, police had listed Pathak as an absconder after the complaint was filed. The case originated from an episode of his television program Tough Talk, titled “Hiltonma Jaiveer Deubako Paisa” (“Jaiveer Deuba’s Money in Hilton”), which questioned Jaiveer Singh Deuba’s possible involvement in share dealings linked to the Hilton Hotel.
Jaibir Singh Deuba is the son of Nepali Congress president and former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and current Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba. He had lodged a complaint with the Cyber Bureau, accusing Pathak of defamation and damaging his reputation.
Despite the allegations, the Patan High Court had earlier issued an interim order preventing authorities from detaining Pathak without proper legal justification.
People's News Monitoring Service