Nepal's crackdown on businessmen faces due process questions

Nepal's administration is pursuing accountability through arrests of prominent businessmen, but the methods are drawing criticism for potentially bypassing due process. The Supreme Court recently found the detention of businessman Shekhar Golchha illegal, citing a lack of due process. However, he was rearrested hours later on a separate insurance-fraud allegation, which officials claim is unrelated to the previous case.

Golchha was later released on bail for Rs10 million. This pattern of arrests and legal charges against figures like Shankar Agrawal, Shekhar Golchha, and Prithvi Bahadur Pande is drawing comparisons to a significant crackdown in South Korea a decade ago. In 2017, Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong was arrested on bribery charges related to a controversial merger, a case that involved years of legal uncertainty before a final acquittal in 2025.

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A government can pursue accountability and still overreach. The question is whether this one can tell the difference, and whether it can keep doing both at once.

The comparison highlights the potential impact of prolonged legal jeopardy on business decision-making. While Nepal's situation may not appear as acute as South Korea's, a quiet concern is spreading through the business community. Business leaders are questioning which ordinary commercial decisions could now expose them to criminal investigation. Business organizations have stated that while they agree with accountability for the guilty, detention should not be the default response to allegations, emphasizing that guilt should be established by the courts.

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the private sector has no disagreement that anyone found guilty should be held accountable, while asking the government to listen first and not treat detention as the default response to an allegation; guilt after all is a matter for the courts to establish.