A cyber case against fake audio producers and broadcasters

The district attorney's office has filed a case on Thursday against Yuvraj Kandel of Sidhakura, Navin Dhungana and Rajkumar Timalsina, who is said to be making audio. A fine of up to 1 lakh rupees, imprisonment for up to 5 years or both has been demanded for the defendant, filing a case for committing an offense against the Electronic Transactions Act and defamatory offences. All three were arrested by the police as 'absconding defendants' and submitted a report to the district attorney's office in Kathmandu.

'We have filed a case on Thursday,' said Sandesh Shrestha, co-lawyer of the district attorney's office, 'If the defendants had been caught, they would have been arrested on Friday, but since they are absconding, the court will issue a deadline and call for a hearing.' According to Sections 57 and 58 of the Code, there is a provision to issue an arrest warrant in cases where the sentence is less than three years, and in cases where the sentence is more than three years.

'In this case, the district court will issue an arrest warrant as it is a crime punishable by up to five years' imprisonment,' said co-prosecutor Shrestha As it has been done, the Kathmandu District Court has informed that the deadline to appear before the court will be issued for the resolution of the case. "There is a 36-day deadline for the defendant to stop, even if they do not appear within that period, the defendant will be notified by issuing a public notice," said Rambabu Sharma, the judge of the court. The case will proceed in their absence.''

After confirming that the audio broadcast under the name 'Dark File' was fake, the Cyber ​​Bureau of the Police Headquarters submitted a report with the opinion of prosecuting the case against them. Defendant Timalsina deliberately produced false audio to insult Supreme Court judges, eminent legal professionals and media entrepreneurs and broadcast it sensationally by 'Sidhakura' without knowing its truth under Section 47 of the Electronic Transactions Act 2063 and Section 168 of the Criminal Code 2074. It is mentioned in the indictment that action should be taken against them because of the opposite offense.

"Defendants Rajkumar Timalsina, Yuvraj Kandel and Naveen Dhungana harmed the reputation of the Honorable Supreme Court and Honorable Judges, created confusion in the general perception of the Honorable Court, spread hatred or malice, and committed an offense under the Electronic Transactions Act," the indictment states. , 'An incident of defaming the honorable Supreme Court and other persons and bodies in the court case by preparing and broadcasting a wrong video clip was established.' It is mentioned in the police investigation that there is no dialogue of the main characters who were said to be present during the recording and there is no objective basis as to how the dialogue recorded in the audio of the audio clip recorder can affect the pending cases. Similarly, the indictment concludes that the audio clip is confirmed to be fake even though Timalsina, the recorder of the audio clip, has not been able to provide any details of the person named Kishore Bista, who himself revealed that most of the dialogues are there. The 'file name' of the audio clip is mentioned at 18:20:18 on March 12, 2021. But Timalsina gave the recorded statement on Chait 30, 2077 between 5 and 6 pm.

Whereas, the date mentioned in the file name of the audio (March 12th, 2021) when converted to Nepali will be February 19, 2077, according to the police investigation, it will also appear to be faked. The investigating officer has concluded that such false content under the title "Sting operation of the meeting attended by Supreme Court judges to dismiss 400 corruption cases" was broadcast on Sidhakura's YouTube channel on May 14.