The Supreme Court (SC) has refused to issue an interim warrant to arrest the Chairman and Prime Minister (PM) of the CPN (Maoist Center), Pushpa Kamal Dahal.
The single court of Judge Ishwore Khatiwada ruled on Friday that the interim order demanded by the petitioners does not need to be issued for now. However, the court has requested a written response from Dahal and other defendants explaining why the order demanded by the petitioners should not be issued.
The single court of Judge Bishwambhar Shrestha was unable to hear the case due to lack of time on Thursday, but the Khatiwada court heard it on Friday.
The petition from 14, including lawyer Gyanendra Aran and Kalyan Budhathoki, and another from Chiranjeevi Giri, were registered on Tuesday.
Aran and Budhathoki had approached the Supreme Court with separate petitions in November 2022 seeking a warrant to arrest Dahal and take any necessary action against him in connection with the conflict-era cases. But the court administration refused to register their petitions stating that the conflict-era cases are outside the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court as they would be dealt with by the transitional justice mechanism.
Aran and Budhathoki then appealed against the decision of the court administration.
Hearing his appeal on Friday, a court of judges Ishwar Khatiwada and Hari Krishna Phuyal had ordered the court administration to register the lawsuits filed by Aran and Budhathoki against Dahal.
Addressing an event organized at Khula Manch in Kathmandu on the occasion of Maghi on January 15, 2020, Dahal refuted allegations that he had killed 17,000 people during the decade-long Maoist armed conflict, but said he would take responsibility for the death of 5,000 of those killed during that period. He had also said that he would take responsibility for everything good and bad that happened during the armed conflict.
The petition filed Tuesday seeks a warrant to arrest Dahal based on the statement he made then.
