Hindu leader Acharya Shree Niwas, who was arrested for trying to incite communal violence by staging a fake assassination of himself, has been transported to Jhumka Prison after the Morang District Court remanded him in judicial custody.

A single bench of Judge Nawaraj Dahal on Wednesday ordered Shree Niwas and his two accomplices—Madhav Chaudhary and Laxmi Raj Adhikari—to remain in remand detention pending next hearing.

 Chief District Officer Ram Prasad Acharya said Shree Niwas was being tried under the Arms and Ammunition Act 2019 while Chaudhary and Adhikari were being held in detention as per the Muluki Ain (National Code) 118 (2).  

Shree Niwas was shot at in the early morning of April 8 in Biratnagar. He was hospitalised with a gunshot wound in his chest. The self-styled godman was discharged from the Biratnagar-based Neuro Hospital after 21 days. He was preparing to leave for Delhi, India, after the incident, but police apprehended him from the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu.

Police had found in their investigation that Shree Niwas had staged the attack on himself with the help of Chaudhary and Adhikari with the intent of stoking communal violence.