The Supreme Court has ordered the release of former UML lawmaker Laxmi Mahato Koiri.
A bench of Justices Kumar Regmi and Shreekanta Paudel issued the order while hearing a habeas corpus petition on Thursday.
The order states: "...as the arrest warrant issued on July 2 and the subsequent prison warrant issued on July 3 do not appear to be in accordance with the law, the court quashes them through a certiorari order and issues a habeas corpus order to release the petitioner today, provided he is not required to be held in custody for any other case."
Koiri had previously been acquitted by the Mahottari District Court in the case related to the murder of Armed Police Force (APF) Assistant Sub-inspector (ASI) Thaman BK during the Madhesh Movement in Jaleshwar, Mahottari, on September 11, 2015.
However, upon appeal, the Janakpur High Court sentenced him to five years in prison on July 1 this year.
Koiri’s son, Manoj Kumar, filed a habeas corpus petition, arguing that the Area Police Office had illegally arrested his father on July 2 before the full text of the high court's verdict had been released.
The Supreme Court ruled that the arrest and prison warrants issued while the window for appeal remained open were not legally sound.
The court noted that police had arrested Mahato based on an urgent arrest warrant for investigation into offenses related to the human body, rather than for the implementation of the high court's verdict. However, since the case file failed to specify the particular incident or offenses, the arrest warrant itself was illegal, the court ruled.
