Sobhraj, NRB guv case verdicts put off again

Kathmandu, November 25:

Two keenly awaited judgments, one by the Supreme Court and another by the Special Court, were put off today as the judges involved in the hearing of the cases were busy today with the marriage of their respective daughters.

The apex court, which had put off its judgment in the case of alleged international killer Charles Gurumukh Sobhraj, today put off its judgment again as Justice Top Bahadur Magar was busy with his daughter’s marriage. His daughter got married today.

Judge Komal Nath Sharma took leave for his daughter’s marriage and so the Special Court postponed the issuance of judgment in the corruption case filed by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) against the Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank, Bijaya Nath Bhattarai, and Executive Director Surendra Man Pradhan.

A division bench of Supreme Court Justices Anup Raj Sharma and Top Bahadur Magar has been considering the case against Sobhraj and a three-member bench of Special Court judges Bhoopdhoj Adhikary, Komal Nath Sharma and Cholendra SJB Rana has been considering the case against Bhattarai and Pradhan.

Today was the second postponement of judgment in Sobhraj’s case and the third in the Governer’s case.

The judgment on Sobhraj was postponed on November 4 after Justice Anup Raj Sharma went on a visit of lower courts in Kathmandu Valley.

According to a Joint Registrar of the apex court, Shreekanta Paudel, the judgment in Sobhraj case will be on December 19.

Sobhraj had moved the apex court after the Patan Appellate Court had upheld the judgment of the Kathmandu District Court that had slapped a 20-year jail sentence on him.

The two top officials of the Nepal Rastra Bank Bhattarai and Pradhan have been awaiting the Special Court verdict for four months after the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority filed a corruption case against them. The case related to irregularities in a Financial Sector Reform Project at the Nepal Rastra Bank.