KATHMANDU: In its second attempt to execute verdicts, the Kathmandu District Court (KDC) today arrested a convict when he tried to evade the court order.

A team deployed by the KDC officials arrested Janbu Sherpa — a convict in foreign currency exchange crime — while he was stepping inside the Supreme Court (SC) for initiating process to revise the lower court verdict.

After convicting Sherpa over the crime, the KDC had enlisted him as the fugitive. The authorities were also asked to arrest him in order to execute the verdict as he had failed to pay the fine slapped by the court.

According to Chitra Bahadur KC, chief, Verdict Execution Section, KDC, Sherpa was arrested in relation to implementing the verdict that slapped him a fine of Rs 68,91549 as per Section 17 (1) of Foreign Exchange Act, 1963.

The KDC had imposed the fine on December 24, 2006 as he was arrested and prosecuted on the charge of possessing US $ 88,100, Indian currency 148,000 in the denominations of 500 and 1000, and Chinese Yuan 4,700, violating Section 3 of the Act.

A single bench of Judge Narayan Prasad Prasad Dahal had imposed the fine and an imprisonment of three months 26 days, before a division bench of Patan Appellate Court judges — Hari Prasad Ghimire and Meera Khadka — upheld the verdict on November 8, 2008.

In a similar circumstance one-and-a-half months

ago, one Bhimendra

Kumar Goyal was arrested and jailed. However, Goyal was released following an order of the apex court.

“We also gave him (Sherpa) last chance for paying the fine,” said KC. “We sent him in jail after he told us that he could not pay the fine.” Sherpa has been sent to Sadar Khor in Dillibazar.

KC added that Sherpa’s arrest was just an attempt to execute the verdicts.

According to him, there

are more than 100 such individuals who are yet to pay the fine amounting to Rs 10 million each.Kathmandu District Court has a cumulative amount of Rs 2.39 billion yet to be coughed up from the convicts.

Hemanta Rawal, assistant spokesperson for the apex court, however, expressed his ignorance over the arrest of Sherpa from the Supreme Court premises.

“Only registering revision case in the apex court does not prohibit the convicts from being arrested.

Moreover, it does not mean to obstruct execution of court verdicts.”