National
Life sentence for UML leader murderers
The District Court in Okhaldhunga has sentenced five people to life imprisonment for the murder of CPN-UML leader Chhabilal Karki.
The single bench of Judge Subhas Babu Puri on Thursday gave the verdict of life imprisonment to Nabaraj Basnet, Yadunath Ghimire, Bimarsharaj Ghimire, Tikaram Bhujel and Chandra Kumar Karki for the conviction of the murder. The court slapped Lal Bahadur Bhujel, Dev Bahadur Katuwal and Dil Bahadur Sarki with three-year jail term on the same charge.
Court Registrar Dhan Bahadur Karki said the court put the case against seven other accused, who are at large, on hold.
UML’s influential district leader Karki, a permanent resident of Bhadaure VDC-1, was murdered at Thulachhap-4 on July 8, 2010.
He was bludgeoned to death with batons and iron rods. Karki was the then member of central representative council of the party. His widow Shakuntala Rajbhandari has been elected to the new Constituent Assembly under the proportional representation system.
Most of the convicts and the fleeing suspects are UCPN (Maoist) activists.