Doti, Dacember 18
The Dipayal High Court on Thursday upheld the 2019 March decision of the Kailali District Court about convicting lawmaker Resham Chaudhary and seven others of the murder of eight police personnel and a child in Tikapur of the district in August 2015.
A division bench of judges Tek Narayan Kunwar and Sitaram Mandal issued the verdict.
Besides upholding the lower court’s decision, the high court added the punishment for a convict, Laxman Tharu. Whereas the District Court had released Tharu after three years in jail, the High Court sent him behind bars again, for life.
Expressing dissatisfaction with the District Court’s verdict last year, lawmaker Chaudhary and 10 others had filed an appeal at the High Court.
Chaudhary was elected to the Lower House of the Federal Parliament representing Kailali-1 in the elections held in 2017. After the victory, he had surrendered to the court.
Owing to the pressure from his party, the then Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara had administered the oath of office and secrecy to him in January 2019. However, after the conviction, he had lost the status of a lawmaker.
