Nepali Congress leader Mohammad Aftab Alam has been released from prison following his acquittal by the Birgunj bench of Janakpur High Court in the Rautahat blast case.
Jailer Bhimraj Koirala of Nakkhu Prison Office said that Alam was released on Wednesday evening after the court sent a letter.
NC lawmaker Dev Prasad Timilsina had arrived at the prison to receive Alam.
A bench of Judges Khusi Prasad Tharu and Arjun Maharjan acquitted Alam and three others earlier on Wednesday.
According to Deepak Bhandari, registrar of the Janakpur High Court’s Birgunj bench, the court acquitted Alam, his brother Mohammad Mahtab Alam, Sheikh Siroj alias Sheikh Seraj, and Badri Sahani.
“Since the crime could not be substantiated, the high court overturned the district court’s verdict and acquitted them,” Bhandari said.
The Rautahat District Court had previously convicted them in connection with the Rajpur bomb explosion and subsequent killings.
They were accused of burning people alive in a brick kiln. On April 25 last year, the Rautahat District Court had sentenced the four to life imprisonment in the case. However, another accused, Mukti Sah, was acquitted.
Two persons were killed and over a dozen injured in a bomb explosion at Pharhadawa of Rautahat on April 9, 2008, before the first Constituent Assembly (CA) election. Most of the injured persons were Indians and all of them suddenly disappeared a few days after the incident.
Police investigation found that the bodies of those killed and injured in the explosion were loaded onto a tractor and burned in a brick kiln on Alam’s instructions to cover up the incident.
