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Former lawmaker of erstwhile CPN Maoist Centre Balkrishna Dhungel has been recommended for waiving his remaining jail sentence despite the widespread criticism. The prison office, Dillibazar, wherein Dhungel is doing time in a murder case, has initiated process for the presidential pardon on Republic Day, which falls on May 29, waiving his remaining about 12 year long jail sentence. Though Dhungel was imposed life term (20-year jail sentence) in a murder case of Ujjan Kumar Shrestha of Okhaldhunga in 1998, he has served just about eight years in jail. Granting pardon from the head of state is general practice in Nepal and around the world only if the convict meets the criteria for waiver the remaining jal sentence. The general practices exercised in Nepal were that murder convict can get waiver only if the murder was not committed in cruel and violent manner, served 40 per cent of jail sentence and who had shown good conduct in the jail. As Dhungel was imposed life term not only from the lower court but from the Supreme Court (SC) and he challenged the SC verdict by absconding for years, it is used to claim that he does not meet the criteria to get waiver the remaining jail term.
It is revealed that the prison office, Dillibazar, has initiated process to waiver the jail term of about two dozen persons including Dhungel in the recommendation of the government and its allies though the officials at the office have been hesitating to make public the decision and names of recommended prisoners. It is said that the names of 23 persons are forwarded to the District Administration Office (DAO), Kathmandu, for the waiver process though it has got the list of about 1000 inmates from different prison office of the country. As Dhungel was the influential leader of the then CPN Maoist Center, which is merged recently in the Communist Party of Nepal, the government and its allies would have exerted pressure to the concerned state agencies for the presidential pardon. It is likely that President Bidya Devi Bhandari would not raise question in the case of Dhungel for the presidential pardon as she was not only the former leader of the then CPN UML, which has been running the incumbent government by renaming it as the Communist Party of Nepal. As the government has overwhelming majority in the parliament, it is likely that government and its allies can influence not only the parliament but also the office of the president and other state agencies. But the widespread concern of now is that the provision of presidential pardon should not be misused to release the perpetrators of heinous crimes.
As the government has not stopped to parrot with big commitments on the name of mentioning rule of law, controlling rampant corruption and many other reforms, we have nothing to say to the government but an expectation is that the established trend would not be jeopardized on the name of pleasing a person regardless of he/she would have a leader or nearer of any other influential leader of the government ally. The government, particularly its head Oli, should not indulged in the petty interests of political gain by giving impunity to the persons involved in the heinous crime. The government decision to waiver the remaining sentence of murder convict Dhungel not only stands against of the commitment of the current government not to compromise with law and order but also leave a disturbing message to the conflict victims that government might deal with all the perpetrators of war crimes with leniency. As the recommendation made by then Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai of the then Maoist for presidential pardon was quashed by the Supreme Court (SC) in November 2011, it is expected that that the SC would give attention to the things that is cooking now going against of its own verdict.
