KATHMANDU: Two-time minister and three-time parliamentarian, Agni Sapkota is a standing committee member of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP).

Born on 13 February 1958 in Kubinde, Sindhupalchowk, Sapkota was as teacher for 15 years. He obtained membership of the Nepal Communist Party (fourth convention) in 1978.

Later he joined the CPN-Maoist and was involved in the party’s decade-long ‘people’s war’ from 1996 to 2006. Sapkota was elected to both Constituent Assemblies in 2008 and 2013. In 2011, he was appointed the minister of information and communications, and in 2015, he was appointed minister of forests and soil conservation.

In the incumbent House of Representatives, he was elected from Sindhupalchowk’s Constituency No 1 in 2017 general elections.

Sapkota faces a murder case. He has been accused of being involved in the murder of Arjun Lama from Sindhupalchowk. Lama’s wife Purni has moved the Supreme Court seeking justice and the constitutional bench is hearing the case.