Pokhara, January 1

Pokhara High Court overruled the verdict of Kaski District Court in which the lower court had slapped life sentence on four youths in a murder case yesterday.

Kaski District Court had convicted four youths for the murder of Biswas Thapa of Suklagandaki Municipality, Tanahun, in a dispute that broke out after a football match at Katreghat, Lekhnath,  30 months ago.

The four were handed down life sentence and seven were sentenced to five years in prison on 6 May 2017 by the district court.

A joint of bench of high court judges Jivanhari Adhikari and Balchandra Sharma gave clean chit to all the 11 persons accused of murdering Thapa. With the high court verdict, all eleven persons were freed from jail. They had been kept in jail for 30 months.

The district court had convicted Binod KC, Biman Gurung, Bishal Gurung and Bibash Pun for Thapa’s murder and handed them life sentence. Similarly, the district court had sentenced Balmiki Bohora, Pankaj KC, Asish Kunwar, Sulav Khatri, Sandip Pun, Man Bahadur Pun and Samir Pradhan to five years in prison.