KATHMANDU, JULY 12

A deadline error by the government attorneys has helped ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Gandaki Province lawmaker Rajiv Gurung aka Dipak Manange go scot free in a money laundering case being heard by the Supreme Court.

The SC opened hearings in a money laundering case involving four alleged dons Ganesh Lama, Abhishek Giri, Chakre Milan and Parshuram Basnet.

Giri, Milan and Basnet were acquitted by the apex court, but Lama was convicted in the case.

The apex court, however, cannot hear the appeals filed by government attorneys against the acquittal of Rajiv Gurung aka Dipak Manange in the money laundering case, as the case was filed well past the deadline to do so.

According to Spokesperson for the Office of the Attorney General Sanjeeb Raj Regmi, the Special Court mistakenly gave 70-day deadline to the government attorneys to file an appeal against Manange’s acquittal.

It was supposed to give only 65 days to file the appeal.

Special Government Attorney’s office sent the case file to the Office of the Attorney after 65 days, but before 70 days.

The Attorney General’s office filed the appeal before 70 days, but the Supreme Court refused to entertain it, arguing that the deadline for filing the appeal had already elapsed.

“We probed the incident and found that government attorneys working in the Special Government Attorney’s office made a mistake in determining the deadline for filing the appeal. It was their negligence but not a deliberate act,” Regmi said.

He added that departmental action was taken against those responsible for the mistake.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on July 13, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.