The Supreme Court has upheld the earlier rulings of the Rautahat District Court and Birgunj Bench of Janakpur High Court to remand a former minister and Nepali Congress leader Mohammad Aftab Alam to judicial custody.

Alam is charged with being the mastermind behind a bomb blast and subsequent murder of more than a dozen people in Rautahat in 2008.

A division bench of Justices Sushma Lata Mathema and Nahakul Subedi said that the decision of the subordinate courts to remand him in judicial custody until the final verdict was valid. Alam had moved the Supreme Court challenging the decision of the subordinate courts, demanding his release on bail.

The plea was rejected by the division bench.

“The Supreme Court has upheld the decisions of the lower courts to remand him in judicial custody,” Bimal Poudel, spokesperson at the Supreme Court, told the Post. “It has rejected Alam’s demand for release on bail.”

With the ruling, Alam, a suspended member of the House of Representatives, will have to remain in custody until the Rautahat District Court takes a decision in the case against him.

Alam was arrested in October 2019 for his alleged involvement in a bomb blast and killing the injured by throwing them in the brick kiln at Fradahawa, in Rautahat district on April 9, 2008.