The Patan High Court has endorsed the decision of Chitwan District Court to acquit a total of 12 persons in the murder of Krishna Prasad Adhikari of Phujel, Gorkha.
Krishna Prasad Adhikari, then a teenager from Phujel-7 of Gorkha district with no involvement in politics, was allegedly killed by the then rebel Maoist cadres including Paudel in Chitwan on June 6, 2004.
Krishna's father Nanda Prasad, who died on September 22, 2014 during fast-unto-death demanding justice, and his mother Ganga Maya, who is on the 111th day of her 12th fast-unto-death on Sunday, had lodged a police complaint against 13 persons including the main accused Chhabi Lal Paudel accusing them of murdering Krishna.
But a single bench of Judge Kul Prasad Sharma of the Chitwan District Court over on September 9, 2018 gave clean chit to the 12 also including Sita Adhikari, Ram Prasad Adhikari, Parshuram Paudel, Him Lal Adhikari, Meghnath Paudel, Bishnu Tiwari, Kali Prasad Adhikari, Bhishma Raj Paudel, Ram Prasad Adhikari, Januka Paudel and Shubhadra Tiwari stating there was no sufficient evidence to prove that the defendants had murdered Krishna.
The charge against the 13th accused Rudra Acharya was kept on hold as he was residing abroad then.
Krishna's family then moved the Patan High Court against the verdict. A joint bench of Justice Chandi Raj Dhakal and Merina Shrestha of the Hetauda bench of the Patan High Court on Sunday has endorsed the verdict of the Chitwan District Court, according to Chief of the High Public Prosecutor's Office Hetauda Sandesh Shrestha.
