Prachanda, Baburam and dozen Maoist cadres get clean chit The Special Court has issued clean chits to Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda', senior leader Baburam Bhattarai and over a dozen Maoist cadres on a charge of treason.
A three-member bench of justices Gauri Bahadur Karki, Bhola Prasad Kharel and Om Prakash Mishra acquitted the accused in the case of Bandipur Police Post attack, on January 26, 2001 saying the government could not provide enough evidence to support its claim.
The erstwhile government had filed a case against Prachanda, Bhattarai and almost a dozen Maoist cadres on February 16, 2001 seeking a ten-year jail term each on charges of involvement in the attacks. Two Maoist cadres, Padam Rana and Keshav Raj Sigh were arrested in connection with the attacks, but the Special Court released them later.
The Special Court has recently started to revive cases which were pending for many years due to the failure of defendants to respond to the court notices.
The Maoists cadres who have been given clean chits are Govinda Prasad Paudel, Dev Raj Subedi, Lalu Kisan Sharki, Dhruba Ghimire, Araj Kumar B.K., Nanda Bahadur Khadka, K.B Roka, Gam Bahadur Shrestha, Yam Nath Acharya and Nara Bahadur Thapa.
nepalnews.com Jun 03 09