After voting in Kathmandu, senior leader of the Rastriya Swatantra Party and candidate for Jhapa-5, Balendra Shah, flew to Jhapa by helicopter. But his helicopter returned midway without landing.

Acting Chief Commissioner of the Election Commission, Ram Prasad Bhandari, while talking to Kantipur at 11:40 am, said that the Rastriya Swatantra Party had not taken permission from them to use the helicopter. Based on his statement, we had published a news titled ‘Balen, who flew to Jhapa by helicopter without permission, returned to Kathmandu without landing’ . We have corrected it.

However, Balendra’s chief aide Kumar Ben told Kantipur that there is no truth in the statement that he did not take permission from the commission on Wednesday. He said, ‘Our team returned after accepting it after being asked not to come citing security reasons. It is not that permission was not taken.’

The helicopter with the call sign 9N-AOB of Heli Everest, which took off from Kathmandu at around 9:11 am on Thursday morning, had departed for Jhapa. Initial information was received that it had returned to Kathmandu without landing at the designated destination due to lack of permission.

Ben shared the letter with Kantipur that they had obtained permission from the commission on the 20th. The letter reads, ‘Balendra Shah has been granted permission to use the helicopter only on the Kathmandu-Jhapa route on 21 Falgun 2082, and we request that a separate record of the expenses incurred while using the helicopter on that route be made available to the commission when requested, as per the decision.’

We also asked Commissioner Sagun Shamsher Jabra to understand the subject of the letter. He said, ‘Permission has been granted by the commission. We don't know why he flew or why he returned.'

We spoke to sources related to the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Chief District Officer, the Jhapa Police Chief, and the Civil Aviation Authority regarding Balendra's aide's claim that the helicopter was returned citing security reasons.

Rama Acharya, Joint Spokesperson of the Ministry of Home Affairs, said that the issue of the helicopter being returned is not related to security. She said, 'He did not return for security reasons. There may be other reasons. Please understand the technical issues at the airport.'

We also asked Nepal Police Spokesperson Avinarayan Kafle to understand the security challenge. He said that he was not aware of any security challenge regarding the return of the helicopter in which Balendra was travelling. He said, 'There is no security challenge for anyone to go anywhere in Nepal. Moreover, a heavyweight candidate like him has a lot of security from the state. In such a case, there is no question of security arrangements not being made.'

Jhapa Police Chief SP Basundhara Khadka said that the security situation in Jhapa is normal, saying, 'Voting is ongoing at all polling stations. There is no information about the helicopter not being able to land.’

We also asked Jhapa Chief District Officer Shivaram Gelal whether security reasons were responsible for Balendra’s helicopter not being able to land. He said, ‘It is true that his helicopter did not land. But we do not know why it could not land.’

Nepal Civil Aviation Authority Tribhuvan International Airport spokesperson Satish Basnet said that the helicopter not landing was not related to the weather. He said, ‘Those who chartered the helicopter must have had some reason. Then the airport operations department instructed the helicopter to return.’

After talking to security agency sources, we asked Balendra’s aide Kumar Ben again – you had said that you returned after a security threat. Have you informed the security agency about this?

Ben claimed that they did not inform him but that they received messages about the security threat from both the Jhapa Police and the Prime Minister’s Office. We told him that when we spoke to the Home Ministry and district-based security sources, they said they were not aware of the security threat. He said, ‘We were able to reason. We were not able to show the message we received.’

Kantipur’s aviation correspondent Suraj Kunwar has also spoken to sources related to the aviation sector about why the helicopter turned back midway. According to flight sources, the B-3E helicopter of Heli Everest with five passengers, including Balendra, took off from Kathmandu and reached 57 nautical miles (about 105 kilometers).

Balendra was in the helicopter along with Kumar Ben, Ram Bhandari, Vivek Mishra and Sushil Kadariya.

Balendra was sitting in the front seat of the helicopter with pilot Kamal Budha. After Balendra asked Captain Budha to return to Kathmandu, Budha, who is also the chief pilot of Heli Everest, returned the helicopter to Kathmandu from the skies of Udayapur without continuing the Bhadrapur charter flight. The helicopter, which took off from Kathmandu at 9:11 am, landed at Tribhuvan International Airport again at 10:09 am.

A Heli Everest source said that before Balendra asked the pilot to divert the helicopter, five passengers discussed it by showing each other their mobile phones. ‘After being asked to return the pilot, the pilot returned the helicopter without asking the reason. He informed the Kathmandu Airport Tower that he was “due to political reason diverting to Kathmandu,” a high-ranking source at the airport told Kantipur.