Justice Phuyal says alleged fixer invoked PM Shah to press Supreme Court judges
Phuyal says Sapkota claimed he made Manoj Kumar Sharma chief justice. Sharma says he never knew him.
Supreme Court Justice Hari Phuyal has acknowledged exchanging WhatsApp messages with Inam Sapkota, a detained alleged fixer, after Sapkota introduced himself as a special representative of Prime Minister Balendra Shah, OnlineKhabar reported on Thursday, October 29. Later that afternoon, Chief Justice Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma, the head of Nepal's Supreme Court, signed a statement himself denying any contact with Sapkota, OnlineKhabar reported.
Sapkota, 30, the Kathmandu Post reported, is in the custody of the Kathmandu District Police Range, with courts extending his remand, OnlineKhabar reported. He is under investigation for money laundering after a phone search turned up contacts with judges, police officers and politicians. Investigators told the Kathmandu Post that people facing court cases appeared to approach Sapkota to get matters settled.
Leaked messages, first published by Naya Patrika on Thursday and reported by the Kathmandu Post, show Sapkota sending Phuyal a screenshot of a habeas corpus petition, a request to the court to free a detained person, filed by businessman Rohit Gupta, held in the same money laundering case as detained businessman Deepak Bhatta, urging, "Please stop this, sir. The prime minister is also interested in this matter. Please dismiss it." Phuyal replied that he had seen it late, that there were grounds to release Gupta and that he had been asked to post Rs 20 million bail. He then proposed meeting at Hotel Himalaya the next day. A joint bench of Phuyal and Justice Shrikant Poudel had ordered Gupta released on September 2, the Kathmandu Post reported. Sapkota replied, "Okay."
Phuyal told reporters at his chamber on Thursday that Sapkota met him and five to seven other justices as a group at Hotel Himalaya and warned they could face impeachment, OnlineKhabar reported. Afterwards, Phuyal said, Sapkota sought favourable treatment in cases involving the Nepali Congress, detained businessman Deepak Bhatta and Sharad Ojha, former Insurance Authority chairperson. Setopati quoted him declining to say how many judges attended, only that some judges and court administrators were there. Phuyal said the judges reported Sapkota to Inspector General of Police Dan Bahadur Karki, who called him "connected to people above us," and later to Army Chief Ashok Raj Sigdel, who denied any army connection to him.
Phuyal says Sapkota kept urging him to support the Chief Justice and claimed he had made Sharma chief justice, OnlineKhabar reported. Sharma's Thursday statement denied any "direct or indirect contact or acquaintance" with Sapkota. Poudel said his bail order rested on lawyers' arguments and the merits, and that he had met or phoned no one about it, OnlineKhabar reported.
The Nepal Bar Association, lawyers' umbrella body, called Thursday for an investigation into the disclosures, including the roles of judicial leadership and other justices, with discipline if wrongdoing is found, OnlineKhabar reported. The full court, a meeting of all justices, was scheduled for Friday, October 30, with "contemporary issues" on the agenda.
What the coverage missed
Police moved on Sapkota after receiving information about his alleged links with former Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana and claims he arranged deals within the judiciary, OnlineKhabar reported. Police arrested him on September 27, the Kathmandu Post reported. OnlineKhabar reported he was stopped at Tribhuvan International Airport while preparing to fly to Delhi and first held on a charge of indecent behaviour. The Post said he was held over allegations of attempting to influence cases.
A separate document circulating on social media, the Kathmandu Post reported, lists alleged bribe payments under the names of Chief Justice Sharma, Rastriya Swatantra Party lawmaker Bishwaraj Pokharel and Armed Police Force officer Banshi Raj Dahal, instructing a transfer of 198,333, currency unspecified, to a US account held by a relative of Sapkota, or a Nepali account held by his wife. The government has dismissed Dahal over allegations he shared information with Sapkota. Nepal Wire has not verified the document, and no cited outlet has established it is genuine. Supreme Court justices told the Kathmandu Post they could not comment on alleged financial transactions without evidence. Chief Justice Sharma has denied any contact with Sapkota. None of the cited reports carries a response from Pokharel or Dahal.
What we still do not know
Phuyal has declined to name the five to seven justices he says joined the Hotel Himalaya meeting. Any investigation of the kind the Nepal Bar Association has called for could identify them.
None of the cited reports carries a response from Prime Minister Shah's office to Phuyal's account. His secretariat could confirm or deny it.
No outlet cited here had reported what Friday's full court meeting decided by the time of publication. The Supreme Court's registrar could confirm the outcome.
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Sources
- OnlineKhabar English · Phuyal's on-record account of contacts with Sapkota, the impeachment rumours, the Hotel Himalaya meeting, and the IGP and army chief contacts
- OnlineKhabar English · Chronology of Thursday's revelations, Chief Justice Sharma's and Justice Poudel's statements, the Bar Association's call for an investigation, and the Friday full court agenda
- Setopati · Analysis of the unanswered questions around the Hotel Himalaya meeting, Phuyal declining to name attendees, and judicial conduct rules
- OnlineKhabar (Nepali) · Phuyal's detailed Nepali-language account of his contacts with Sapkota and other justices
- Nagarik News · Background only, not used for direct claims about Sapkota after review
- OnlineKhabar English · Background on Sapkota's airport detention and the scope of the police investigation
- The Kathmandu Post · Text of the WhatsApp exchange about Rohit Gupta's case, the Naya Patrika leak, the bail order details, Sapkota's September 27 arrest, and the leaked transfer document naming Sharma, Pokharel and Dahal
- The Kathmandu Post · Background on how the investigation into Sapkota began through former Chief Justice Rana's phone, and investigators' account of people seeking Sapkota out
Editorial review record
Why it ran today
- ranking judge 1: ranked #1 with 80/100. This advances our October 29 piece on the Chief Justice's denial. The new development is Justice Phuyal's on-record admission of messaging Sapkota, which OnlineKhabar, Setopati and Kathmandu Post confirm, plus the Bar Association's call for a probe and today's full-court meeting. Write it strictly as competing on-record accounts, with the claim that Sapkota invoked the PM's name attributed to Phuyal, and update it with the full-court outcome. The weakest dimension is personal stakes.
- ranking judge 2: ranked #1 with 80/100. Confirmed. Our October 29 piece carried the Chief Justice's denial and the police panel but not Justice Phuyal's on-record account of messaging Sapkota, which OnlineKhabar, Setopati and Kathmandu Post report. The Bar Association's probe call and today's full-court meeting are also new. It is a judiciary accountability story, not party business. The weakest dimension is personal stakes.
What the desk dug up
- Left out. Sapkota's arrest did not originate from a court-fixing or money-laundering probe. Police say he was first detained on an unrelated 'indecent behaviour' complaint at Tribhuvan International Airport on September 27, while preparing to fly to Delhi, and only afterward did investigators expand the inquiry into his contacts with judges, police officials and politicians. None of this week's coverage of Phuyal's admission mentions how or why the Sapkota investigation actually began. [OnlineKhabar English]
- Who benefits. A separate leaked WhatsApp transfer message, reported by Kathmandu Post, names sitting MP and former Nepal Police AIG Bishwaraj Pokharel (Okhaldhunga) and Armed Police Force AIG Banshi Raj Dahal alongside Chief Justice Manoj Kumar Sharma, and references an alternate deposit account at Sanima Bank held by Sapkota's wife, Kabita Pandey. None of the current coverage of the Phuyal admission mentions a sitting lawmaker or a police/APF official appearing in Sapkota's financial messages. [Kathmandu Post]
- The pattern. Sapkota's contacts with senior officials and judges were already under formal police investigation at least three weeks before this week's revelations: a special investigation committee led by SP Narahari Regmi was formed after Sapkota's links to former Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana surfaced in early October, well before Phuyal's Thursday admission made headlines. [OnlineKhabar English] [Kathmandu Post]
- The numbers. Outlets disagree on how the Sapkota-judiciary contacts were first discovered. OnlineKhabar's October 29 report says the WhatsApp exchanges 'came to light while police were investigating Sapkota's phone,' while an earlier Ekantipur report from October 9 attributes the discovery of the same contact network to an examination of former Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana's mobile phone. [OnlineKhabar English] [Ekantipur]
Validation
1 red team round, 2 revisions. Decision: approved.
- accuracy88
- relevance87
- defensibility87
- reach62
Judge 1: The core reporting on Phuyal's account is sourced, but the headline, take and hook rest on a false chronology. Sharma's signed denial came after Phuyal spoke, the same Thursday, and the Wednesday 'reversal' rests on a Nagarik item that never names Sapkota. The leaked bribe document naming the Chief Justice runs without an authenticity hedge or his denial, invents a Pokharel and Dahal non-response, names a private wife, and opens its section with a sentence OnlineKhabar contradicts. Every fix is precise and sourced, so one editing pass can make it publishable.
Judge 2: I checked v5 against the pages. All seven of judge 2's edits are in. The hedge is restored. The Delhi and indecent behaviour details now go to OnlineKhabar and the September 27 arrest to the Post. The unknowns line no longer describes a Bar probe as under way. Poudel is spelled one way everywhere. Phuyal's reply is separated from the Post's account of the bench. The favourable treatment requests come after the hotel meeting. The Chief Justice's role phrase is added. I found no new unsourced claim, and every contested act is attributed with Sharma's and Poudel's denials included. Remaining flaws are minor style ones: the body runs about 760 words against the 700 ceiling, two caption sentences run over 20 words, the take says 'hotel room' where sources say only Hotel Himalaya, and the full court outcome could not be re-checked because search was unavailable. None is high severity, and with no revisions left the piece is publishable.
The complete record, including the advocate, skeptic, red team and defence arguments, is kept by the newsroom.
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