Office of the Attorney General has filed separate appeal petitions at the Supreme Court against the Special Court decision to exonerate gangster duo Milan Gurung aka Chakre Milan and Parshuram Basnet in money laundering cases.

The OAG, which had earlier failed to register a similar appeal against another mob boss Rajeev Gurung aka Deepak Manange due to the expiration of statute of limitations, filed the petition in time in the cases of Chakre Milan and Basnet.

OAG Spokesperson Sanjeev Raj Regmi admitted to the lapses in judgement made by the office in Manange’s case and said that the incident prompted them to take an early step to register the appeal.

“We registered the appeal petitions in time so that Chakre Milan and Basnet do not get away like Manange did,” said Regmi. 

Manange, who is currently serving prison term on attempted murder conviction, was cleared in money laundering case by the Special Court on August 20 last year. The OAG had 50 days after the Special Court’s decision to appeal the case before the Supreme Court. The duration had expired by the time it tried to register a petition.   

The failure of the OAG to register the appeal petition in Manange’s case had raised the question if he had used his political connection to delay the registration process.

Manange had won the Provincial Assembly elections from Manang (B) as an independent candidate with the strong backing of the then CPN- UML.  

He was disqualified to become a lawmaker after the apex court in January upheld the Patan Appellate Court’s verdict to sentence him to five years in prison in an attempted murder conviction.

Both Chakre Milan and Basnet are also considered close to the ruling Nepal Communist Party. Basnet is associated with the Youth Association Nepal of the erstwhile UML. There were concerns whether the OAG would miss the registration deadline in the cases of Chakre Milan and Basnet. According to Regmi, the OAG had registered appeal petitions in the case of Milan Chakre on May 28 and June 13. The Special Court had acquitted Milan Chakre on January 24 and Basnet on April 8.

The Department of Money Laundering Investigation had filed separate cases against Manange, Chakre Milan, Basnet, Abhisek Giri and Ganesh Lama at the Special Court on May 19, 2013. 

The Special Court has already given clean chits to four of them. Giri was the latest mobster to get acquitted on June 19. The court has yet to hand down its decision in case of Lama, who is now a Nepali Congress member.