KATHMANDU: CPN-UML lawmaker and chair of the parliamentary committee investigating the cooperative fraud case, Surya Bahadur Thapa Chhetri, has termed the Rastriya Swatantra Party’s (RSP) signature campaign in support of its chair Rabi Lamichhane as “political propaganda.”
Speaking in Monday’s House of Representatives meeting, Thapa said the campaign lacked legitimacy, especially when the Supreme Court itself had ruled that Lamichhane could not be declared innocent based on the current evidence, and ordered continued custody.
“A 15-page appeal in the name of a person in Bhairahawa prison was submitted on Asar 7. It was not an appeal, I would call it a plea,” Thapa remarked. “Based on that plea, a signature campaign is being conducted. But there are more than half a dozen cases ongoing in district, high, and supreme courts. Is this retaliation or politics? This campaign is clearly political propaganda.”
Thapa accused the RSP of using Lamichhane’s case to advance its political interests after failing to secure relief from the judiciary. “It’s an attempt to roast their bread over this issue. I say with certainty—no court order can be overturned by a signature campaign,” he asserted.
He emphasized that political maneuvers could not alter judicial decisions, implicitly warning against undermining legal processes through public pressure campaigns.
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