The Chitwan District Court has remanded CPN (Maoist Center) leader Kali Bahadur Kham to judicial custody in the case related to the murder of businessman Ram Hari Shrestha.
A bench of Judge Dayaram Dhakal on Friday ordered that Kham be sent to judicial custody.
Shrestha was murdered at the then Maoist People’s Liberation Army (PLA)’s third division cantonment in Jutepani, Chitwan, on May 10, 2008. His wife Ramila Shrestha filed a complaint with the police claiming that the murder was carried out on the instruction of Kham, who was then the division commander of the third division cantonment.
The cantonment’s brigade commander Govinda Batala was arrested in connection with the murder but Kham had been absconding. Kham was arrested on Monday and brought to Chitwan. Two other accused, Keshav Adhikari and Ganga Ram Thapa, are still at large.
In 2008, a theft took place at the PLA third division’s liaison office at Shrestha’s house in Koteshwar of Kathmandu. The third division office assigned brigade commander Batala the task of investigating the theft of Rs 1.7 million and pistols from the office.
On April 27, 2008, Batala abducted Shrestha and brought him to Chitwan from Kathmandu on Kham’s instruction to make him confess the theft. Shrestha was murdered 13 days later. His body was thrown into the Trishuli River and later found in the Narayani River.
Batala informed the third division office about Shrestha’s murder only three days after the incident. The office informed the police about it on May 15, 2008. The police then took the case to court.
The Supreme Court has already acquitted Batala in the case overturning the verdicts of the district and appellate courts.
The Chitwan District Court and the Hetauda Appellate Court had sentenced him to prison for three years stating that he was an accomplice in the murder. He was in jail for three years until the district court gave its verdict.
Police are preparing to take Kham to the Chitwan District Prison.
