KATHMANDU: The Special Court today gave a clean chit to scores of Maoist cadres who had been facing charges under the Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (Crime and Punishment) cases for as long as eight years.

The court let off several Maoist cadres, including Chandra Prasad Pokharel alias Bipin, Hari Bhakta Acharya, Shreekanta Adhikari, Keshav Raj Ghimire, Sthir Babu Pokhrel, Nawaraj Pahadi, Sadhu Ram alias Prabhu Ram Ghimire, Ishwori Prasad Ghimire, Chandra Khanal, Pushpa Khanal, Pradip Khanal and Sushil alias Mukunda, were facing cases under the TADA Act.

“There was no ground to convict them,” Agni Thapaliya, Registrar, Special Court, told this daily.

The Special Court freed them after reviving the cases, which were suspended because of the absence of the accused in the court proceedings.

The accused had not appeared before the court when it issued summons to them.

The court gave clean chits to them while deciding eight separate cases lodged by the then government after the promulgation of the TADA Act, 2002.