Mayor of Katahariya Municipality, in Rautahat district, Siyaram Kushwaha, who was sentenced to life imprisonment on a murder charge, arrived in his hometown in a chartered helicopter on Saturday, after the Supreme Court (SC) acquitted him.

A division bench of Justices Sharada Ghimire and Dambar Shahi acquitted Kushwaha, who was serving term at Dillibazaar Prison for the past eight months. A police team deployed from the Central Investigation Bureau had arrested the mayor at Kathmandu, in May.

The mayor had been detained following an order issued by the Birgunj-based Janakpur High Court in March. The court had directed the District Police Office in Rautahat to arrest Kushwaha on the charge of murdering Kashi Nath Tiwari, the founder chairman of Hindu Yuva Sangh in Birgunj in 2010. The Rautahat District Court first acquitted Kushwaha, who was then a CPN (Maoist) activist, but the high court had overturned the ruling and sentenced him to a 20-year imprisonment after pronouncing him guilty of the murder of Tiwari on March 12 this year.

“The judiciary has finally provided justice to me,” said Kuswaha, after landing at the in Katahariya. A large number of locals and Nepal Communist Party (NCP) activists gathered to welcome him.

Kushwaha stood for elections as a CPN (Maoist Centre) candidate during the local level elections held last year, and then won to become Mayor.

Public holiday to celebrate release

Katahariya Municipality has declared Sunday to be a public holiday in the local unit to celebrate mayor Kushwaha’s release. The municipality announced that all educational institutions and ward offices be closed on Sunday.