Last week, police arrested renowned industrialist Roop Jyoti and his daughter Suruchi at the Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu. The arrest made headlines as various organisations representing the private sector such as the Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industries, National Business Initiative and Nepal Chamber of Commerce protested the move.
But why did the arrest turn controversial? Here we explain:
What was the complaint?
Police arrested him on the charge of fraud, but Jyoti said he was not involved in any fraudulent activity.
As he explained at the Kathmandu District Court on Sunday, the complainant Bigendra Krishna Malla gave Rs 12.6 million to Shambhu Phuyal, a staffer at CE Construction, the company assigned to divide a piece of land belonging to Landmark Developers into smaller plots. Phuyal had assured Malla a particular plot (Plot No. 19) for the money, but Landmark Developers was not informed of the deal. Hence, the company sold the plot to another company, Quality Developers.
Then, Malla demanded Rs 50 million in compensation from Landmark Developers. Jyoti said he paid back Rs 12.6 million that Malla had given to Phuyal as Phuyal used his name in the deal with Malla. He, however, denied that he was one of the operators of the company.
Was the arrest necessary?
In his 18-point statement submitted to the court on Sunday, Jyoti said police did not have sufficient grounds to arrest him. “Generally, there could be three reasons for keeping a person in detention for investigation: if they fear s/he could run away, s/he could not pay the compensation or s/he could destroy the evidence.”
Then, the industrialist also explained that he was not going to run away, and he was capable of paying the compensation. About destroying the evidence, he said there was nothing to destroy as the case was already closed. Jyoti claimed he already paid back Rs 12.6 million to the complainant Malla, three days before he filed the complaint.
He said registering the case after the payment and arresting him on the basis of the complaint were wrong.
Was it a criminal case?
Whereas police arrested him at night from the airport, in the manner as if it is a serious criminal case, critics have argued that fraud, which Jyoti has been accused of, is a civil case and an immediate arrest was not necessary. Jyoti himself claimed in his statement that the court last year had decided that it was a civil case.
Why did the court vacate the stay order?
In fact, Jyoti’s arrest was imminent since December last year. Malla had filed the complaint on December 2, 2018. In order to escape the arrest, Jyoti moved the Supreme Court demanding a stay against any police action in relation to the complaint. The court had issued the order as per his demand.
However, on Tuesday last week, a division bench of Chief Justice Cholendra Sumsher Rana and Justice Prakash Dhungana vacated the stay order. Jyoti claims the justices did not give any explanation about vacating the order.
