Secretary Krishna Hari Pushkar Detained for Sending Direct Message to Prime Minister

Kathmandu. On Jestha 21, Secretary Krishna Hari Pushkar, working at the Vice President's office, was briefly taken into police custody for questioning due to breaking the 'chain of command'. On the orders of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers' office, the Valley Crime Investigation Office, Teku, took him into custody from his residence in Kopan. Secretary Pushkar was accused of sending a personal message to Prime Minister Balendra (Balen) Shah. He, a permanent resident of Mahottari, the ancestral home of Balen, had sent a direct message to the Prime Minister with aspirations of becoming Chief Secretary or Ambassador. He was released after about 7 hours of detention as no basis for prosecution was found.

This incident has completely shaken the administrative circles. Some have analyzed this incident as a tendency to secure positions of profit by staying close to power centers, including Prime Ministers, ministers, and influential leaders of political parties, with changes in government, as in the past. Some have stated that it is wrong for the state to take a high-ranking civil servant into custody merely for sending a message to the Prime Minister.