CPN-UML leader Balkrishna Dhungel was found dead in the bathroom of his residence at Kandaghari in Kathmandu on Saturday.

He died after slipping on the bathroom floor, Bharat Bahadur Bohara, the police chief in Kathmandu, said.

Dhungel was elected a Constituent Assembly member in 2008 with the Maoist ticket.

When the then Communist Party of Nepal, formed after the merger between the CPN-UML and the CPN (Maoist Centre), was invalidated by a Supreme Court order, Dhungel had chosen to remain with the UML.

Dhungel, a former rebel, lived a controversial and troubled life. The Supreme Court convicted him of murdering Ujjan Kumar Shrestha of Okhaldhunga in 1998. The Okhaldhunga District Court in 2004 had convicted Dhungel for the murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment, but in 2006, the Rajbiraj Appellate Court gave him a clean chit.

After the Maoists joined mainstream politics following the Comprehensive Peace Accord, Dhungel won a Constituent Assembly seat in 2008 from Okhaldhunga.

In 2010, the Supreme Court overturned Rajbiraj Appellate Court’s decision to uphold Okhaldhunga District Court’s verdict.

Despite the top court’s verdict, Dhungel had got off scot-free. A writ petition was filed against the sitting police chief in the Supreme Court, accusing the police leadership of not enforcing the order.

Then the court asked the police to arrest Dhungel and present him before the court.

Following the order, the Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police arrested Dhungel in 2017. The court sent him to Dillibazar prison in October 2017.

In 2018, he was released from prison after getting presidential pardon.

The government had recommended the President for Dhungel’s clemency stating that he had served 40 percent of his sentence and fulfilled the criteria for pardon.

Previously, the Baburam Bhattarai-led government in November 2011 had recommended presidential clemency for him, but it was rejected by the court.

Dhungel and Maoist leaders had insisted that his case should be investigated by transitional justice bodies “because the case was part of the Maoist insurgency”. However, lawyers advocated that it was an individual murder case and needed to be handled by the ordinary court.

The UML general convention held last year elected Dhungel as a politburo member.