The ‘secularism case’: prosecution of a Hindu activist before a quasi-judicial authority in the Nepal Tarai

This chapter analyses the case of ‘Manoj’, a Hindu activist accused of illegal possession of weapons under the Arms and Ammunitions Act and tried before a Chief District Officer in his capacity of quasi-judicial authority in a town of Terai, Nepal. The case is reconstructed through the accounts of the investigation, the prosecution, the defence and other court documents, and through multiple interviews with the different actors in the case. The chapter looks at the broader context of the justice administered by the quasi-judicial bodies in Nepal and of the tensed reactions to the declaration of secularism in Tarai. It points to the discrepancy between the actual practices and the legal standards, which allows a plausible space for the religious and political context and for Manoj’s status to have a bearing in the procedures and the results of the case