The Supreme Court on Wednesday fixed a date to issue a ruling on a writ petition challenging the government’s decision to stop the investigation against CPN (Maoist Centre) Vice Chairman Agni Sapkota, who is also a former Speaker of the House of Representatives.

A Constitutional Bench comprising Chief Justice Bishowambhar Prasad Shrestha and Justices Prakash Man Singh Raut, Sapana Pradhan Malla, Prakash Kumar Dhungana and Kumar Regmi fixed June 26 as the date to announce the verdict. The petition has been sub-judice at the court for around 12 years.

Sapkota faces a murder charge for an insurgency-era killing. The former Speaker is accused of killing Arjun Lama in Kavre during the decade-long Maoist insurgency.

Purnimaya, Arjun’s wife, had frequently attempted to register a first information report, but the Kavrepalanchok district police refused to do so. Then, she moved the apex court. The police later registered the petition following an order from the court while hearing her petition filed on March 3, 2008, asking for the court’s intervention in the case.

But the erstwhile Baburam Bhattarai-led government on July 12, 2o12 ordered the district authorities to stop the investigation, and Purnimaya moved the court against the decision. Sapkota was the communication minister in the Bhattarai government.

Sapkota has been a leader of the Maoist party since 1995. A year later, in 1996, the party launched an armed rebellion against the state. Arjun Lama was kidnapped and murdered on April 29, 2005, at the height of the insurgency, allegedly by Sapkota and Surya Man Dong, another Maoist leader.

The police registered the case after the apex court’s directive to immediately accept the complaint and update the top court on the proceedings every 15 days. The Kavrepalanchok district police wrote to Sindhupalchok police to locate and arrest Sapkota. But Sindhupalchok police reported that Sapkota was nowhere to be found.

Sapkota was elected to Parliament from Sindhupalchok thrice after the complaint was lodged and was inducted as a Cabinet member and then the Speaker.

Maoist leaders argue that the case should be settled through the transitional justice bodies, saying that it was one of the thousands of conflict-era cases, while Purnimaya and some rights activists say that it was not related to the Maoist insurgency.

In March 2016, the court decided that the Constitutional Bench would henceforth hear the petitions filed by Purnimaya and civil society members. The hearing on the petitions was deferred multiple times. On April 24, the constitutional bench started a continuous hearing.