SC order on Dhungel's case

The Supreme Court has issued an interim order to the government not to execute the decision to grant amnesty to murder convict Maoist CA member Bal Krishna Dhungel on Sunday.

A single bench of Justice Tahil Ali Ansari issued such order in response to a writ petition filed by Sabitri Shrestha, sister of Ujjan Kumar Shrestha who was murdered by Dhungel in 1998.

The bench has referred to Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi to set up a special bench to hear the case as ‘it has serious constitutional and legal concerns.’ The bench has also set 21 November as the date for final hearing on the issue.

The cabinet has forwarded the proposal to the president requesting him to pardon Dhungel invoking his special authority as per article 151 of the Interim Constitution.

The Okhaldhunga District Court on 10 May, 2004 had convicted Dhungel of murdering Shrestha but he never served his term. Having received a clean chit on June 25, 2006 from Rajbiraj Appellate Court, Dhungel won the CA election from his home district in 2008. However, the Supreme Court on January 3, 2010 upheld the verdict of district court slapping a life imprisonment on Dhungel.

Political parties, civil society and rights organisations have protested the government decision to grant presidential pardon to Dhungel. The opposition parties have warn of disruption to the parliamentary proceeding if the government does not withdraw its decision.

PM Bhattarai has been meeting leaders from other parties in a bid to convince them regarding the case of murder convict Dhungel. He met NC President Sushil Koirala and Madhav Kumar Nepal and explained the case to them that it was of political nature. They turned down his request saying the party has already taken stance that the case should be withdrawn.