KATHMANDU: The Kathmandu District Court has sentenced the culprits of Ranibari murder case with life imprisonment along with property seizure on Wednesday.

A single bench of Justice Ramesh Prasad Rijal punished Manaraj Gurung and Pramesh Chauhan for their involvement in the brutal murder of Engineer Hemant Shrestha and his wife Anjali in Ranibari, Kathmandu, on July 15, 2002.

The CIB team led by the then DIG Hemanta Malla Thakuri had cracked the mystery surrounding the murder with the arrest of Gurung of Dolakha; and Chauhan of  Ramechhap from Samakhusi and Jorpati respectively on March 12, 2015.

The duo murdered the Shrestha couple to clear the way to kill Gita Khadka, a manpower agent, who is also the landlady of the house in which the Shrestha couple lived.  The duo was contracted ‘to kill Khadka’ for allegedly swindling their boss of Rs 200,000.

However, she managed to escape the attack by locking herself in the washroom. Kathmandu District Court had rejected their bail plea and sent them to Central Jail on April 9 for further investigation.