The Patan High Court has sentenced one of the accused in the abduction of senior neurosurgeon Dr Upendra Devkota’s daughter to 17 years in prison and slapped a fine of Rs 23,519.

A division bench of Justices Binod Mohan Acharya and Krishna Bahadur Thapa slightly altered the Kathmandu District Court’s verdict issued on July 15, 2014.

The Kathmandu District Court had earlier held Raju Thapa guilty in the abduction case and sentenced him to 11 years in prison and imposed a fine of Rs 175,000.

According to police, Thapa is the main accused in the abduction. Thapa had asked for Devkota’s car key before abducting his daughter Megha in his car.

The High Court had given 11 years prison to Thapa on charge of abduction and handed additional seven years for robbery.

The District Court had earlier said Thapa could get clean-cheat in the robbery charge. After the District Court issued the verdict, Thapa had not made any appeal to higher court.

Devkota’s daughter Megha was abducted from his Khadka Bhadrakali-based ancestor’s home on August 3, 2008 at 3 am. It has been learnt that Thapa also made off with Rs 1.6 million in cash and gold ornaments worth millions from the house.

The abductors released Megha three days after receiving a ransom Rs 10.3 million from Devkota. The abductors had initially demanded a ransom Rs 100 million and the amount was later negotiated to Rs 13 million.

Police had lodged a complaint against Krishna Rai, Siddhartha Lama aka Dil Kumar, Raju Lama, Hem Bahadur Thapa Magar alias ‘Hemanta’, and Raju Thapa for their alleged involvement in kidnapping Devkota’s daughter.

Police have imposed a fine of Rs 14 million from the accused.

Apart from Thapa, Kathmandu District Court on January 19, 2013 had convicted four others on the charge of kidnapping.

The District Court had sentenced Krishna Rai and Siddhartha Lama to six years in prison and slapped a fine of Rs 2.4 million on the charge of robbery.

Each of them had been given 11 years in prison and imposed Rs 175,000 fine on the charge of abduction.

The verdict was later upheld by the division bench of Justices Sushila Karki and Jagdish Sharma Paudel on April 25, 2016.