KATHMANDU, August 16: In an attempt to cover up the wrongdoings of a Superintendent of Police (SP) of the Armed Police (APF), a police chief was sent to prison instead. After Naresh Singh Sahu, a senior officer working in Darchula Armed Police Battalion No. 44, leaked information to the media about irregularities in ration allowance committed by SP Tribhuvan Bista, instead of investigating on the SP, the gendarme was sent to prison. Sahu, accused of leaking information about the weapons, was sent to prison on the orders of a special court of the APF.
“To protect SP Bista, the legal wing of the APF headquarters not only fired Sahu from his job after accusing him of leaking information regarding weapons, but also sent him to prison for detention. tentative,” a source said. However, SP Bista has not yet been investigated. Sources claim that since being protected by the Prime Minister, the APF has not even been able to carry out an internal investigation. After the security forces tried to interrogate him, they were stopped immediately following pressure from the central government.
Police Chief Sahu had shed light on irregularities in the ration allocation within Battalion No. 44 HQ Khalanga by the Battalion Chief. SSP Aryal, of the Police Legal Branch, charged him with the crime of providing details of weapons and ammunition to an unauthorized person and of committing a “fraudulent” act. The information was released on June 11 via media operating from Dhangadhi, along with the news that of the 258 people working in the battalion, 122 security personnel were absent on the same day.
SP Bista is the commander of APF Nepal Battalion No. 44. Sahu gave information about financial irregularities carried out by SP Bista to journalist Santosh Singh Thagunna. After which the reporter published the news. Officer Sahu became embroiled in the controversy after the reporter, who was supposed to protect the source’s identity, leaked details about the source in the news.
He went to the battalion and said it was Constable Sahu who passed the information on to him. Sahu, who hoped for improvement after exposing the situation in the APF, has now been unfairly dismissed after falling prey to SSP Aryal’s scheme.
On June 13, Sahu was brought from Darchula to APF headquarters in Halchowk, Kathmandu. Leaking internal information from a military organization is a crime. The organization issued a prison sentence against agent Sahu for providing confidential and sensitive information about the organization to the media via social media, including Viber. Currently, Agent Sahu is in Dillibazar Prison. A life sentence is provided for “attempting or abetting an attempt to make security-related information available to unauthorized persons, organizations or national or international groups”. As a result, the Armed Police Headquarters filed a case against Sahu with the Special Police Court.
“Senior Armed Police Constable Khim Singh Bista from Nepal Armed Police Headquarters Darchular Battalion No. 44 said on June 11 that Naresh Singh Sahu, stationed from Nepal Armed Police Headquarters Battalion No. 25 at Battalion No. 44 Darchula Headquarters, should be punished for disclosing information about the battalion’s internal weapons and manpower information, as well as for carrying out activities of a type that would cause harm to the internal and organizational structure of the battalion,” sources said.
Sources say that after the case was filed with the Special Armed Police Court, the allegation that Police Chief Sahu had committed an offense under Section 27 of the Armed Police Subsection 1(f) was forcibly confirmed.
There have been accusations for many years that hundreds of security personnel were furloughed in different armed police units at the same time as their food rations were gobbled up by senior officials. APF spokesman DIG Bidur Khadka said action needed to be taken because Sahu leaked confidential information. “We are conducting an internal investigation into this matter. Once the investigation is completed, the case will be clear,” said DIG Khadka.
Police Chief Sahu says he only provided information about leave and ration allowance to reporter; however, he was also accused of leaking details of the weapons. “Other charges were forcibly brought. The armed police remanded him in custody accusing him of leaking information about the number of handguns and armed police in the ranks,” the source said.
It is mentioned in the investigation report that he also filed an anonymous complaint against the organization. Sahu was sent to prison on July 8 for violating the Armed Police Act 2058. Even though the Inspector General of Police, Raju Aryal, claims to have taken an interest in the matter, he was unable to form a committee to investigate SP Bista and the said financial irregularities. “The IGP has been under a lot of pressure from the center of political power not to investigate the SP Bista affair, so it has been spared so far,” the source said.