Kathmandu, December 21

The Supreme Court today told the concerned authorities to send Chhabi Lal Paudel, accused of murdering Krishna Prasad Adhikari, a resident of Gorkha district, and is currentlu on bail, to judicial custody till the final hearing of the case is over.

Appellate Court Hetauda had endorsed the Chitwan District Court’s order to release the other accused on bail agreeing with the latter’s argument that prima facie evidences were not enough to send the accused to judicial custody during trial.

Three of the accused, Sita Adhikari, Subhadra Tiwari and Januka Paudel, were, however, released by District Court Chitwan on the promise that they would appear before the court on the fixed dates during trial, according to lawyer Baburam Giri, who pleaded on behalf of victim’s mother Ganga Maya Adhikari.

Chhabi Lal Paudel is allegedly the prime suspect in the case. Appellate Court, Hetauda, had endorsed the lower court’s verdict on June 18 this year.

According to Assistant Spokesperson of the SC Bishwa Raj Paudel, division bench of Justice Girish Chandra Lal and Deepak Raj Joshee struck down the lower court’s order in the case of Chhabi Lal Paudel, but in the cases of the other accused persons, the Supreme Court endorsed the lower court’s order.

Krishna Prasad Adhikari, a resident of Phujel in Gorkha district, was killed, allegedly by Maoist cadres on June 26, 2004 in Chitwan when he went to visit a relative there.

Krishna Prasad’s father Nanda Prasad, who had been staging a fast-unto-death at Bir Hospital for almost a year demanding justice over the murder of his son, died on September 22, 2014.

Krishna Prasad’s mother Ganga Maya Adhikari has also been staging a fast unto death in Kathmandu.

Office of the Attorney General and the victim’s mother Ganga Maya had moved the apex court against the order of the lower court.

The first information report field by parents of the victim and his brother Nur Prasad indicted 12 people including Chhabi Lal Paudel.

Maoist cadres had allegedly murdered Krishna Prasad accusing him of working as an informant for the police. The Krishna Prasad Adhikari murder case, one of the key war era cases, is subjudice at Chitwan District Court.