Nepal ex-chief justice Rana briefly detained after threat alert, police deny arrest

Nepal's former chief justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana was briefly detained on Sunday after police said they received information about a possible security threat to him. Local media, however, reported that he had been arrested in connection with a criminal case, a claim the police denied.

The Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office said Rana was taken to its office in Teku and later released around noon after some questioning. Police said he had been brought in "under police security" after authorities received information that he could face an attack.

Senior Superintendent of Police Santosh Khadka said the former judge was brought in after the authorities received information about a possible attack. The police have not publicly identified the source of the alleged threat. According to media reports, Rana was briefly detained over his recent meetings with former prime minister K P Sharma Oli. A police team went to Rana's residence in Maharajgunj around midnight and took him to the police office in the early hours of Sunday, police sources said.

A leading news portal claimed Rana was detained for questioning on suspicion of involvement in plots to dislodge the incumbent government, which it said was led by Prime Minister Balendra Shah. The brief detention came as opposition parties, including the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist-Leninist led by Oli and the Nepali Communist Party led by Pushpakamal Dahal 'Prachanda', were preparing for anti-government protests.

Rana became the chief justice on January 1, 2019. An impeachment motion was registered against him in Parliament on February 13, 2022, after which he was suspended from office. The motion remained pending and was not put to a vote before the term of the House of Representatives ended. The then secretary-general of the Federal Parliament Secretariat later declared the motion inactive. A writ petition challenging that decision was filed in the Supreme Court, and on September 9, the Supreme Court's Constitutional Bench dismissed the petitions, ruling that the impeachment motion against Rana had lost its purpose. In sum, Rana was briefly taken into police custody on Sunday over what the police described as a security concern, even as questions persisted over the circumstances around the move.