Kathmandu: An Indian photojournalist has been languishing at a jail in Nepal for seven months. The lensman from Kolkata, Durlabh Roy Choudhary, has been lodged in Jhapa jail for carrying fake currency notes.
The 24-year-old cameraman was arrested from Chandragadhi airport on November 18 last year when he was visiting Nepal from Kolkata via Kakadvitta checkpoint, said Nepal’s state-owned news agency Rashtriya Samachar Samiti.
According to a spokesperson at the district police office in Jhapa, the police seized 226 pieces of photocopy of $100 bills from the photographer when he was flying to Kathmandu from Chandragadhi airport.
Also Read : Heavy rain, floods affect over 800,000 in China’s Jiangxi
The police then filed a case in the district court, Jhapa. Later, a bench of Justice Shankar Bahadur Rai remanded Chaudhary to custody, saying that “there are bases to believe that the defendant is guilty.” The spokesperson further said that the Jhapa district court had issued an order to keep Chaudhary in custody for investigation into the charges against him.
Chairperson of the National Forum of Photo Journalists, Pradeep Raj Onta said that initiatives were being taken for his release. The Indian photojournalist is innocent. Claiming Chaudhary is not a fake currency notes smuggler, Onta requested the Nepal authorities to release Chaudhary, as he had carried fake currency only for a video shooting.
Rahul Barua, secretary of South Asia Foundation, also visited Jhapa district jail and inquired about the case of Chaudhary and assured him of providing all legal assistance. The Indian Embassy in Kathmandu has also been providing legal aid to Chaudhary.
A Nepali tourism entrepreneur, Suman Pandey also announced that financial support would be provided to Chaudhary, saying, “he was instrumental in promoting Nepal tourism and other attractions through his videos and vlogs and we must encourage him. So, I decided to support him.”
According to Ratopati, a popular news site in Nepal, Chaudhary in his statement has maintained that he was carrying counterfeit dollars for his documentary named ‘Money is Nothing’. Chaudhary claimed that he himself showed those dollars to the security guard who later called the police. “It was not discovered by the police during a security screening,” he said.
Also Read : Polio outbreak in Pakistan worsens
According to Chaudhary, he then told police that he had brought the counterfeit dollars to use in his documentary. “However, the police recorded the wrong statement and forced him to sign it, making him believe that they will release him in a while.”
According to his mother Trapti Roy Chaudhary, the website wrote that Chaudhary, who has difficulties in understanding Hindi, has been forced to sign his statement recorded in Nepali. He has claimed that the statement is wrong and does not match with the one he had recorded. Later in the court, he maintained that he came to know about the statement recently.
