Birgunj, September 21

'We lost our guardian years ago, we're being stiffed out of justice now,' said former Constituent Assembly member Nejama Alam. Her comment came in the wake of the release of former CPN-UML MP Ramchandra Kushwaha who was serving life imprisonment for the murder of late UML leader and Alam's husband Mahamud Alam.

After Kushwaha was released by the president's decree upon the recommendation of the Council of Ministers on the occasion of Constitution Day, the victim family held a demonstration in Bara's Parawanipur today seeking justice.

'The government has set a wrong precedence by freeing a man who was given life imprisonment for killing my husband and rendering my kids orphans,' said the murdered leader's wife Nejama. 'It would make sense for the government to waive off the remaining sentence of persons doing time over minor offences. We don't understand the rationale behind freeing a man who had got life imprisonment for a serious crime,' she argued.

She further quipped, whether life imprisonment meant a term of just eight years five months.

The late leader's son Mobin Alam observed it was brazen injustice to them, taking an exception to the trend of powerful and influential people getting concessions and undue favours.

'Apparently, he was released owing to political influence. We won't stop our protest until he is re-arrested,' the son vowed.

Late leader Mahamud Alam had registered his candidacy for the second Constituent Assembly election from Bara Constituency-4.

Just the next day he had registered his candidacy, he was shot at in Parawanipur on 4 October 2013. Seriously injured, he died in the course of treatment a few days later at TU Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu.

Over the shooting, Central Investigation Bureau launched an investigation and arrested Kuswaha about a month later. He was then given 10 years prison sentence by District Court of Bara. After Alam's wife appealed against the verdict, the main judge of Birgunj handed down life imprisonment to Kushwaha, identifying him as the mastermind behind the murder. Other accomplices were given 10 years of prison sentence.