Nepal

Kathmandu, August 30

Patan High Court held the former minister and Chair of Nepal Sadbhawana Party (Anandidevi) leader Shyam Sundar Gupta and four other defendants guilty of human trafficking and imposed a jail term of 10 years and a fine of Rs 100,000 on them.

Patan High Court held Gupta and other defendants Akash Lama alias Bikas Lama, Jit Bahadur Gole, Amir Acharya and Kishor Pandey guilty of kidnapping a businessman Pawan Kumar Sanghai and taking him hostage, said the court Registrar Baburam Dahal.

PHC overturned Kathmandu District Courtverdict that held these defendants only guilty of attempt to kidnapping and hostage taking and held them guilty of these offences.

The verdict was delivered by a bench of judges Guna Raj Dhungel and Tek Prasad Dhungana.

Gupta was arrested by police from Bhairahawa on 16 January 2012 on charges of kidnapping and hostage taking, and was convicted by Kathmandu District Court on 31 May 2015.

District Attorney Office, Kathmandu had filed a kidnapping case against Gupta on 9 February 2012.

Sanghai was kidnapped on 22 December 2011 from Kamaladi. The government had filed a memorandum of appeal at the PHC four years ago. Gupta and other defendants were convicted for kidnapping Sanghai and keeping him hostage for 20 days in Kavrepalanchowk district. They were accused of demanding Rs 8.5 million in ransom from him.

Kathmandu District Court had imposed a seven-year jail term on Gupta but he could walk out of jail after three years and six months as the remaining sentence was waived.

Metropolitan Police Range, Lalitpur had arrested Gupta from Lalitpur on September 2016, on charges of extortion.

Police held Gupta after receiving a complaint that he intimidated and tried to extort money from a woman entrepreneur.

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KATHMANDU: Shambhu Bharati — agent of the contractor company found involved in the Sudan scam — has been taken into police custody.

Speaking to THT Online, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Shyam Gyawali at the Metropolitan Police Office, Ranipokhari confirmed Bharatiarrest and stated that he will directly be presented before the court today.

Bharati, an agent of Assured Risk Company, was found involved in sending substandard consignments to the Nepal Police team deployed in the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Sudan. The court had slapped Bharati with one-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs 142 million. However, he did not serve his sentence and was on the run.

The scam involved embezzlement of money worth millions of rupees while procuring logistics for the Nepal Police personnel deployed in Darfur, Sudan. During procurement of the goods, Rs 284 million had been misappropriated.

The scam also led to the surrender of former inspector generals of the Nepal Police including Shyam Singh Thapa, Om Bikram Rana, Hem Bahadur Gurung, Ramesh Chandra Thakuri, Deepak Kumar Shrestha, Deepak Singh Thangen, who were sentenced to prison in 2017 by the Supreme Court for their involvement in embezzlement of the procurement fund.

In February 2012, the Special Court had convicted them of corruption along with the Armed Personnel Carrier suppliers.

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Kathmandu, August 30

Leader of Nepali Congress Shekhar Koirala today said NC should stick to the provisions of the Interim Constitution of Nepal-2007 on issues of citizenship. Koirala made the remark in the Central Working Committee of the party today.

He said there should be no discrimination on matter of citizenship. &Shouldn&t there be equal right to citizenship for all? When should foreign women and men married to Nepali nationals get naturalised citizenship? Should the government not issue citizenship on the basis of mothernationality? How can equal right to citizenship adversely affect our national security?& he asked.

Koirala said number of foreign women married to Nepali men until last year was 400,000.

&If we look at Home Ministryreport, in 2008 the government issued citizenship certificates to 2.6 million people, of which 1.3 million people in the mountain and hill and 1.2 million people in the Tarai-Madhesareas obtained citizenship certificate by descent. As many as 170,000 people obtained citizenship by birth. Provisions of the interim constitution should be followed on the issue of citzenship,& he argued.

He said the issue of Hindu Rastra (nation) will be strongly raised in the next general convention of the party. &We need to be sensitive on issues of religion. Is it wrong to oppose slaughter of cows?& he asked.

Koirala said although the government during an all-party meeting held recently said there were threats to federalism, secularism and inclusiveness from former king and Netra Bikram Chand-led Communist Party of Nepal, in fact, those in the government were posing threats to these elements.

Koirala said the government was misleading public and yet his party was unable to expose its lies.

He said peoplefaith in the judiciary had eroded as a result of which people were demanding justice from the streets.

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KATHMANDU: A teenager, who had been on the run for nearly one and a half months, has been arrested for attempt to murder.

Manoj Lama (19) of Lisankhu Pakhar Rural Municipality-1 in Sindhupalchok district was taken into police custody after he confessed to the crime, Metropolitan Crime Division, Teku said on Friday.

The victim — Deepak Tamang (36) of Kanepokhari Rural Municipality-6 in Morang district, currently residing at Hepali Height in Kathmandu — was found by the police in an unconscious state with a deep injury to his head, outside Rajesh Hardware in Sukedhara, Kathmandu, at around 11:20 pm on July 16.

Tamang was rushed to Bansbari Neuro Hospital for treatment after being found in such a state by a police patrol team.

On interrogation, the accused confessed to having committed the crime.

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