KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 11
The government has filed a review petition at the Supreme Court challenging the district and high court verdicts in the case of Dilip Mahato of Dhanusha, who was intentionally killed and then run over by a tipper while protesting illegal mining.
The cause of his death, the doctor stated, was, 'crush injury from head to trunk with penetrating wound of the chest wall.'
Suryaraj Dahal, spokesperson for the Attorney General's Office, told THT that the government filed an appeal with the Supreme Court a few days ago, expressing dissatisfaction with both courts' decisions.
The government filed a petition in the Supreme Court on November 19, but it was only registered on Sunday.
The district and higher courts had found two main accused and one accomplice. Four individuals were acquitted. The government claims that the decision to charge some people as accomplices while acquitting others in the brutal murder was flawed. The government has demanded that they all be sentenced to life imprisonment.
Mahato of Mithila-5 went to the Aaurahi River in 2020 with a friend to prevent illegal extraction. He staged a protest after the river was excavated with a crusher.
However, the crusher operator and others brutally murdered him. According to the government's appeal, Dilip was brutally beaten to death by seven people who shoved iron levers and screwdrivers on various parts of his body before burying him in the crusher.
According to police preliminary investigations, Mahato was intentionally run over by a tipper truck bearing number plate Na 7 Kha 6413 following an argument between Mahato and those illegally extracting river materials.
On the night of January 10, 2020, Mahato was crushed to death by a tipper in the Aurahi River near his home. Following an investigation by the District Police Office, the Public Prosecutor's Office filed a case against the seven accused.
The government has filed an appeal with the Supreme Court after the high court and district court ruled that some of the defendants should be imprisoned for only 12 years as accomplices, despite the fact that the perpetrator of such a gruesome murder deserves life in prison.
On February 8, 2024, the High Court of Janakpur upheld the District Court's decision. The court had sentenced only two of the accused to life in prison. A joint bench of the High Court, Janakpur, consisting of Justices Mahendranath Upadhyay and Dhruba Kumar Piya, upheld the District Court's decision.
On February 24, 2023, the Dhanusha District Court sentenced three people to imprisonment and fines. Bipin Mahato, the owner of Churiyamai Sand Processing Industry, and worker Munindra Mahato, who were said to be the mastermind of the murder, were sentenced to life in prison and ordered to pay Rs 5,000,00 each in compensation.
Jitendra Mahato, who was found guilty of murder, was sentenced by the district court to 12-and-a-half years in prison and Rs 250,000 in compensation. Dilip's family had approached the High Court, claiming that the sentence was insufficient. The high court also declined to overturn the district court's decision and upheld it.
The District Court had acquitted crusher operator Bipin Mahato's brother Binod Mahato, as well as workers Satyanarayan Mahato, Shatrughan Mahato, and Roshan Kumar Yadav.
Dilip, who was studying engineering in Bhopal, India, had returned home after completing his final semester exams. A few months after the murder, it was revealed that he had also passed his final semester exams. He had been active at the local level in the fight against environmental protection and illegal and uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources, and he had been targeted since then.
