KATHMANDU, JANUARY 16

Nepal Police said it arrested a total of 2,332 persons absconding after being convicted for various crimes from different parts of the country in fiscal 2019-20.

Nepal Police claimed jail sentence of 1,378 years along with around Rs 380 million in fine from them. The number of people, who have been on the run, after being convicted of crime is on the rise. Nepal Police held as many as 2,736 absconding persons over a period of four months (mid-July to mid-November) of the running fiscal year 2020-21. The number of absconding person arrested during the four-month period in the running fiscal exceeded the total number of persons arrested in the fiscal 2019-20.

Those arrested during the current fiscal were convicted by the Supreme Court, special court, high courts, district courts and the Foreign Employment Tribunal, and had been slapped with imprisonment of up to 20 years in jails.

Police have launched a special campaign to arrest absconding convicts in all districts with special focus on Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Jhapa, Morang, Sunsari, Siraha, Saptari, Dhanusha, Sarlahi, Bara, Parsa, Nawalparasi, Rupandehi, Kapilvastu, Banke, Mahottari, Rautahat, Makawanpur, Chitwan, Nuwakot, Kaski, Dang and Kanchanpur.

The constitution, Police Act and Rules and Criminal Code Act stipulate provisions for the execution of judgements passed by the courts. “As the law enforcement agency, Nepal Police implements the court judgements subject to these laws,” SSP Basanta Bahadur Kunwar, Nepal Police spokesperson, said.

Nepal Police claimed to have stepped up search operations across the country as part of judgement execution to ensure that no one was above the law and that every absconding convict was brought to the book, no matter how long it took. The law enforcement agency has also succeeded in apprehending absconding convicts of crimes committed 30 years ago.

Police said people would lose trust in justice if judgements passed by the courts were not duly implemented.