Kathmandu, September 24:

The Judicial Council recently assigned appellate court judge Lokendra Mallik to head a panel set up by the Supreme Court to investigate the case of three missing persons. The Office of the Attorney General also assigned government joint attorney Saroj Gautam to work as a member of the panel, which will investigate the condition of the missing persons — Bipin Bhandari, Dil Bahadur Rai and Rajendra Dhakal.

However, the Nepal Bar Association is yet to assign any advocate as the member of the panel as per the demand of the apex court. General secretary of the Bar, Madhav Banskota, said they would assign an advocate for the same. Responding to a writ petition filed seeking their release, a division bench of justices Khil Raj Regmi and Kalyan Shrestha had directed the government to set up the panel.

The apex court has given three months for the panel to complete the job. The three persons have been missing for over five years and a habeas corpus petition was filed in the apex court seeking their release.