Kathmandu. The ‘nexus’ of Inam Sapkota, the ‘fixer’ who was arrested on October 11, and the scope of the investigation is expanding. The details of Sapkota’s conversation with Chief Justice Manoj Kumar Sharma regarding transactions and pending cases with Judge Harikumar Phuyal have been made public on Thursday. Earlier, Sapkota’s relationship with former Chief Justice Cholendra Shamsher Jabra, some former judges and Armed Police Additional Inspector General (AIG) Vanshiraj Dahal has been made public.
According to the officials involved in the investigation, the sitting additional judges, senior officials of the Nepal Police and Armed Police, MPs and high-level employees have also been seen in contact with Sapkota. Naya Patrika Dainik published the details of the conversation between Judge Phuyal and Fixer Sapkota on Thursday. According to the details, it seems that there was a conversation between them regarding the case of Rohit Gupta.
Meanwhile, in the details published on Deopost Online, there is mention of money transactions in the name of Chief Justice Sharma and RSVP MP and the then AIG of Nepal Police Vishwaraj Pokharel. It shows the account of transactions of 198 thousand 333 rupees for the three months of November, December and January, and it is requested to deposit an amount equal to 7 thousand 500 US dollars.
With these details coming out, there has been a demand for an investigation on the judges concerned. The Nepal Bar Association has already demanded an investigation through a statement. It is necessary to investigate such a sensitive matter through a truthful, fair, reliable and transparent process. Official figures related to the highly sensitive news related to the judiciary in the media seem to need to stay within their own code of conduct,” the statement said, ‘and it is time for high-ranking officials to demonstrate high ethics.’
The bar emphasized that if the act against the law is proven, it should be taken necessary action according to the law, regardless of the position or status of the person concerned, and if the accusation is not proven, the reputation and institutional dignity of the person concerned will be protected. The accusations and details mentioned in the public news cannot be taken as the final truth or as a conclusion that guilt has been proven against a person. Every person should have a fair investigation, an opportunity to present his opinion and a full guarantee of the judicial process according to the prevailing law,” said the bar, “however, it is not appropriate to limit it to the news in the media after serious questions are raised in public about the conduct of the top leadership of the judiciary and the judges.”
How will the Supreme Court judge be investigated if he is accused of bad conduct or not fulfilling his official duties? An investigation of a Supreme Court judge is linked to impeachment under Article 101 of the Constitution. According to Article 101 (2), at least one-fourth of all members of the House of Representatives may file an impeachment motion based on serious violations of the constitution or laws, bad conduct, lack of efficiency or serious violations of the code of conduct.
There is an 11-member impeachment recommendation committee in the House of Representatives to investigate the grounds and reasons for the proposal. The committee may recommend for impeachment after investigation. At least two-thirds majority of all members of the House of Representatives is required for the resolution to be passed. Article 101 (8) of the Constitution also clarifies that after being relieved from office by impeachment, there is no obstacle to taking action in accordance with the law for crimes committed while in office.
Former Supreme Court Justice Balram KC noted that the Code of Conduct for Judges does not allow meetings with persons who appear to be middlemen, and judges have not taken care of the issue. He said that a parliamentary high-level committee should be formed and investigated in this matter. “As soon as the information that he met and talked with the middlemen came out, it was seen that the thief issued a statement as if he had backed away from having his leg cut off. This was also wrong,” he said.
Former Judges Forum President Top Bahadur Singh remarked that the current situation has come as a result of not being careful while making judges. “When judges were made in the high and supreme courts, party workers and relatives were chosen randomly, which led to the current situation,” he said. Singh also said that although the Justice Council can take action in the case of the District and High Courts, in the case of the Supreme Court, impeachment is the only option.
According to the published details, it seems that ‘fixer’ Sapkota sent the screenshot of the petition against the special court’s order of Rohit Gupta’s arrest and detention to Judge Phuyal. Sapkota sent a message saying ‘good morning’ to Phuyal and saying, ‘Stop this sir, the Prime Minister is also interested in it, please cancel it’. Soon Phuyal called on WhatsApp. Sapkota does not pick up the phone. Then Phuyal ‘replies’ the message saying that he saw the message only after reaching home. He responds to Sapkota that on that day, the joint bench with him did not see grounds for keeping Gupta in custody and ordered him to be released on a bond of 2 crores. Then Phuyal proposed to meet at the Himalayan Hotel the next day. In response, Sapkota said ‘Yes’.
Phuyal has written a reply message and has admitted meeting Sapkota after this detail was made public. When asked, ‘Why did you meet at the hotel?’, Phuyal admitted that some judges met Sapkota because there were rumors of impeachment against them, because they received a message from the Prime Minister.
Phuyal looked at Sapkota’s request for the release of the prisoner, even though there were suspicious conversations going on. Sapkota’s wife, Kavita Pandey, approached the Supreme Court with a petition for direct arrest. On 23 October, the bench of Judges Phuyal and Sunil Pokharel ruled that the petition for detainee’s personalization would be rejected.
Judge Phuyal said that the details made public on Thursday were half-truths. Phuyal says that the relative got to know Sapkota through a high-ranking person and later on when he started talking about the case, they got suspicious and informed the Secretariat of Prime Minister Walendra Shah and he was arrested. He claims that last time he went to the Himalayan Hotel and met some judges with him and after that he gave all the information and communication to the Prime Minister’s Secretariat as a suspicious person.
The transaction details of Chief Justice Sharma have been made public. In the transaction details published by Deopost, it is written ‘Manoj Kumar Sharma (Chief Justice), Okhaldhunga (Vishwaraj Pokharel), Vanshi Dahal (IG APF)’. Although Dahal was labeled as ‘IG’, he was then Additional Inspector General (AIG) of Armed Police. AIG Vanshiraj Dahal has been sacked by the government for sharing information with Sapkota. Former Chief Justice Jabara was taken into custody and taken to the Valley Crime Investigation Office when Dahal went to meet him at night.
It seems that the account number has also been provided to deposit the amount in the Bank of America account in the name of Neerajan Pandey, a relative of Sapkota in the US, in the statement which contains the names of Chief Justice Sharma, MP Pokharel and AIG Dahal. In the message sent by Sapkota to deposit the amount, if the deposit is to be made in Nepal, an option is also given to deposit in the bank account of Kavita Pandey (his wife). The paper containing this message appears to have the government seal of the Digital Forensic Lab of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Nepal Police.
Chief Justice Sharma denied any connection with Sapkota saying that he had no involvement in it. “I have no involvement in the couple of cases in which my name has been mentioned,” Sharma said in a statement issued on Thursday, “I have no direct or indirect acquaintance or contact with those people.” I have not even found it anywhere.” Although Sharma denied the allegations, it seems that the police received the information from Sapkota’s mobile phone after he was arrested.
Based on the conversation between Sapkota and high-ranking officials, the police are investigating. It has been seen in the investigation that Sapkota, who is considered to be a normal person, communicated with high officials of Nepal Police, some judges, ex-judges, political figures and some lawyers on WhatsApp. After that, he was detained and the investigation was started. Sapkota was taken into custody from Tribhuvan Airport on the charge of cheating after being in contact with Deepak Bhatt and Sulabh Agarwal, who were incarcerated for various crimes.
Meanwhile, Chief Justice Sharma has called a full court. An officer informed that all the judges of the Supreme Court have been notified that the full court will be sitting on Friday morning. The full court’s agenda only mentions ‘discussion on current affairs’. From Ekantipur