Bharati Manandhar has again started hunger strike protesting the government’s decision to grant presidential clemency to Yograj Dhakal (Regal) who murdered her husband Chetan Manandhar.
Bharati, who again started hunger strike from Friday, has said that she will continue it till Tuesday.
She was taken to the Bir Hospital after she passed out during the last hunger strike that she started on October 4. She had stopped the hunger strike on October 12 after that.
The Supreme Court (SC) is scheduled to hear the petition against clemency on Dhakal on Tuesday.
Hearing the petition filed by Bharati, a bench of Justice Manoj Kumar Sharma had earlier ordered the defendants to furnish a written response by 5 PM, October 11. The bench had also ordered that the hearing on the petition be given top priority and set the final hearing on the petition by a full bench for October 12 but it could not be heard that day.
The bench had also ruled that Attorney General Din Mani Pokharel should come to defend the government's decision during the final hearing.
Regal Dhakal was released from Tulsipur Prison on the occasion of Constitution Day on September 20 after President Ram Chandra Paudel granted him clemency on the government’s recommendation.
The government had recommended presidential clemency for Dhakal citing the legal provision that the remaining jail term of prisoners can be commuted on account of good behavior if they have served 40 percent of their sentence in cases before mid-August 2018 or 50 percent of their sentence in cases after mid-August 2018.
Bharati had filed a petition at the apex court after Dhakal's release. She also started a hunger strike at Maitighar Mandala on Wednesday afternoon demanding that Dhakal be sent back to prison.
Chetan was killed by Dhakal’s gang in Nepalgunj on July 13, 2015. A bench of the then Banke District Court Judge Bishnu Subedi in April 2019 had slapped a life term on Dhakal to go with confiscation of all his properties. It had also slapped jail terms ranging from three years to 10 years on 12 others involved in Dhakal’s killing.
