Police arrested Poudel, executive editor of the newspaper Chure Sandesh, in the capital, Kathmandu, along with his colleague Suresh Chandra Adhikari, the paper's editor-in-chief. Police initially detained them at the Hanuman Dhoka Police Detention Center in Kathmandu but later transferred them to southern Chitwan District, along the Indian border. Chure Sandesh was a pro-Maoist newspaper published from Chitwan.
On November 26, 2001, the government declared a state of emergency and issued sweeping anti-terrorism legislation that criminalized any contact with or support for Maoist rebels. Two days later, police raided the offices of Chure Sandesh, as well as the home of the weekly's publisher, where they seized documents and copies of the paper, according to the Kathmandu-based Center for Human Rights and Democratic Studies.
Adhikari was released on November 8, 2002, but Poudel remained imprisoned at Bharatpur Jail in Chitwan at year's end.