Kathmandu: Nine days after the release of Kailash Sirohiya, the chair of Kantipur Media Group, on the condition of appearing before the police when summoned, Sirohiya’s son, Sambhav Sirohiya, the managing director of the media company, has accused home minister of taking action against his father after the former’s requests to hide and manage the news related to cooperatives fraud scam were not entertained by the Kantipur Media Group.
Nepal Police on May 21 had arrested Kailash Sirohiya on charge of citizenship certificate forgery after Dhanusha District Court issued an arrest warrant against him.
National and international media fraternity, including main opposition Nepali Congress, condemned the arrest as an attack on free press and accused Home Minister of waging vendetta against Kantipur for reporting the cooperatives fraud cases. One of the cases is related to Gorkha Media Network, where Lamichhane worked as a managing director before he founded Rastriya Swatantra Party in 2022.
“When we see a corruption case against a leader of a new party, Kantipur cannot hide it. The truth must be brought before the people,” Shambav Sirohiya said in the video statement released on Friday on social media X. He has also accused Rabi Lamichhane of asking Kantipur not to publish news relating him with cooperatives funds misuse.
“While were in the process of bringing out the story of Rabi Lamichhane’s cooperative scam to the people, he made several requests to manage and hide those news reports,” Sirohiya claimed. “We tried to make him understand several times that the management does not write the news and editorial team in Kantipur is independent. But he failed to understand this fact.”
Sirohiya claims in the statement that then Lamichhane misused power as home minister and got his father Kailash Sirohiya arrested.
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