Chair of Nepal’s largest media group arrested after publication of reports alleging fraud

On Tuesday, May 21, four plainclothes police officers entered the KMG headquarters in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu and arrested Sirohiya for alleged citizenship irregularities, according to multiple news reports, the local human rights organization Freedom Forum, and Biswas Baral, editor of the KMG-owned newspaper The Kathmandu Post, who spoke to CPJ. KMG also owns the prominent Nepali-language newspaper Kantipur. 

KMG outlets recently published a series of critical reports, including on Monday and Tuesday, the day of Sirohiya’s arrest, alleging that Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane was involved in misappropriating cooperative funds while he was managing director of Gorkha Media Network.

Kathmandu Post editor Biswas Baral told CPJ that dozens of uniformed police officers, as well as political cadres chanting slogans, surrounded the office while Sirohiya was being arrested. He was subsequently moved to a police station in Nepal’s south Dhanusha district.

Earlier on Tuesday, a district court in Dhanusha, issued a warrant for Sirohiya’s arrest following an April 28 complaint accusing him of holding multiple citizenships, which violates Nepal’s 2006 Citizenship Act. The complaint was filed by a committee member of a branch of Lamichhane’s Rastriya Swatantra Party. Sirohiya denies any wrongdoing.

Baral told CPJ that Sirohiya was not summoned for questioning nor offered an opportunity to demonstrate the authenticity of his citizenship documents, a procedure usually followed in similar cases.  

“The arrest of Kantipur Media Group chairperson Kailash Sirohiya from his place of work appears to be an effort to muzzle the critical reporting of Nepal’s largest media group,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna, in New York. “We call on Nepali authorities to ensure that Kantipur Media Group can work freely and without fear of reprisal.”

On Wednesday, the Dhanusha District Court ordered Sirohiya to be held on a three-day police remand. 

In a Tuesday press release, Sirohiya stated he was ready to cooperate with the police investigation, and that the complaint and arrest warrant were issued to “blackmail” KMG into not publishing further reports about the alleged scam. 

In a Wednesday joint letter to Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, 31 editors with major Nepali media outlets stated that Sirohiya’s arrest was “intended to create pressure and fear [within] the press.”

Nepal police spokesperson Dan Bahadur Karki messaged CPJ to ask for a call during office hours, but did not answer the calls that were made. Home Ministry spokesperson Narayan Prasad Bhattarai did not immediately respond to CPJ’s requests for comment.