Resham Chaudhary, patron of the Nagarik Unmukti Party, was released on Wednesday evening, hours after being arrested earlier in the afternoon from the Nepal Academy in Kamaladi, Kathmandu.

The arrest took place while leaders from the Nagarik Unmukti and the CK Raut-led Janamat Party gathered at the venue for a scheduled programme to announce the unification between the two parties.

Chaudhary was detained by police officers in plainclothes and immediately transferred to Dillibazar prison. The arrest was followed by a letter issued by Mahiman Singh Bista, a section officer at the Supreme Court’s writ division. The letter, styled like a judicial order, appeared to override the presidential pardon granted to Chaudhary in May 2023.

However, the Supreme Court later issued a statement confirming that the letter released by the court officer was unauthorised. It further announced that legal proceedings had begun against Bista, who was subsequently taken into custody.

According to officials, Bista admitted to authoring the letter due to personal impulse linked to the 2015 Tikapur incident, in which seven police personnel and a toddler were killed—a case for which Chaudhary had been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Supreme Court spokesperson Nirajan Pandey confirmed that an official directive had since been sent to law enforcement, instructing them to release Chaudhary.

Chaudhary’s lawyer, Tek Bahadur Kunwar, called the arrest “unconstitutional and illegal,” asserting that it was a political tactic aimed at disrupting the rise of new regional political forces. The petition challenging the legitimacy of Chaudhary’s pardon remains under review at the Supreme Court.

Superintendent of Police Apil Raj Bohara initially stated that police acted in compliance with what they believed was a legitimate court order. The incident, however, has raised serious concerns over procedural lapses within Nepal’s judicial and law enforcement institutions.

The arrest and subsequent release forced the indefinite postponement of the unification event between the Janamat and Nagarik Unmukti parties. Janamat Party spokesperson Sharad Singh Yadav described the arrest as an attempt to sabotage political consolidation among emerging forces.

The CK Raut-led Janamat Party has six seats in the House of Representatives while the Unmukti Party has four. Both parties emerged as new regional forces from the 2022 general elections.

Chaudhary, who had spent five years in prison before being released under a presidential pardon on Republic Day, continues to be a prominent figure in Nepal’s evolving political landscape.