KATHMANDU, JANUARY 7
Kathmandu District Court has held celebrated climber Nirmal 'Nims' Purja and his company Elite Exped guilty, ordering Purja to pay a compensation of Rs 11.3 million to Tanka Ghising whose house was destroyed after the gas canisters stored in Purja's office that he had rented from Ghising exploded.
The bench of Judge Kamal Prasad Pokharel held Purja and other opponents guilty of tort and ordered them to pay Rs 11.3 million. The court is yet to prepare the full texts of the verdict.
Ghising had sought a compensation of Rs 35 million from Purja and his business partners Mingma David Sherpa and Mingma Tenji Sherpa. Apart from the compensation, Ghising had also filed defamation and fraud cases against the company's office bearers.
The court ruled in favour of Ghising in compensation but dismissed other two claims - defamation and fraud, advocate Ananta Raj Luitel, who pleaded for Ghising at KDC, told THT.
Ghising had filed the compensation case against Purja who had initially agreed to pay a compensation but later reneged on his pledge.
According to a source at District Court Kathmandu, Purja and his company office bearers who were named opponents in the case had argued that since Ghising, who had obtained insurance for his house, would get money from the insurance company.
However, the court ruled that even if Ghising was eligible to claim insurance money, Purja and his company cannot escape from their responsibility under tort law. Tort law is invoked when somebody who was under legal obligation to do certain things fails to fulfil his obligation, as a result of which some body suffers civil harm.
Purja had rented the bungalow's ground floor for his company Elite Exped. Three persons - all staffers of Purja's company - were killed on the spot and one staffer was injured when the fire engulfed Ghishing's two-and-a-half storey building built on a 5,700 square feet area. The incident happened on September 21, 2023.
A few others were injured when gas canisters stored in the Elite Exped office exploded. Ghising shared that 24 out of 27 pillars of his house were destroyed and that the engineers told him that he needed to demolish the entire building.
Ghising is now living in a rented house. Ghising claimed that he was not aware Elite Exped had stored a number of gas canisters at his house. "I had rented them a floor for Rs 30,000 per month to run their office, but they had clandestinely stored LPG and oxygen cylinders there," Ghising added.
Ghising said although Purja had told him he only had oxygen cylinders, he had clandestinely stored some explosive materials in his office which caused fire to engulf his house when the incident happened.
Purja, who illegally used dual passports to scale 14 peaks above 8,000m in record time, has renounced his Nepali passport after media outlets raised the issue. In recent months, Purja has faced allegations of sexual misconduct.
Mountaineer community has also lodged a complaint at the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority seeking action against him for violating mountaineering laws, evading taxes and defaming the Sherpa/mountaineering community.
Last year, a New York Times report stated that Finnish climber Lotta Hintsa and American physician Dr April Leonardo accused Purja of sexual misconduct during their expeditions with him.