Kathmandu, Nepal: Though it is yet to make public independently, the government has initiated process to waive the remaining jail sentence of former lawmaker of erstwhile CPN Maoist Center on the name of the presidential pardon.
According to a reliable source at the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA), prison Office, Dillibazar, where Dhungel is doing time in a murder case, has recommended waiving his remaining jail sentence.
The prison Office, Dillibazar has wrote a letter recommending to Kathmandu District Administration Office to waive the remaining jail sentence of 26 inmates, including Dhungel. It is said that all the recommended inmates, of them almost all are murder convicts, will be granted presidential pardon on the Republican day that fall on May 29.
The government decision to grant presidential pardon to the murder convicts, particularly to Dhungel is widely criticized from different sectors. It is widely alleged that state power is being misused for the partisan interest. As the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) constituted merging the major two communist parties- CPN UML and the CPN Maoist Center, has exercised overwhelming majority in the parliament.
Constitutionally, the government can recommend waiving the jail sentence to the inmates for the presidential pardon and the head of the state can do so considering to the situations of the recommended persons. But the recent decision is condemned because the recommendation is made to the persons going against of the fundamental criteria set for the presidential pardon.
Some right activists even those who are considered as the sympathizers of the CPN have also objected the government’s move for the presidential pardon.
We will not only knock the door of the court and international right agencies but also hit the street against of the government decision if the former Maoist lawmaker Dhungel was recommended for the presidential pardon because this not only violates the spirit of the rule of law but also hurt the conflict victims, a right activist, who is also a senior advocate, said preferring anonymity.
As the prison office Dillibazar has wrote a letter to the DAO Kathmandu, it has to forward the names of recommended persons to the Department of Prisons before sending the names to the Cabinet through the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs for the presidential pardon.
Dhungel was imposed life term (20-year jail sentence) in a murder case of Okhaldhunga’s Ujjan Kumar Shrestha. He has served jail sentence just about eight years. He was awarded life term with confiscation of property by the Supreme Court (SC) upholding the Okhaldhunga District Court’s verdict convicting Dhungel for the 1998 murder of Shrestha. Dhungel was arrested from his rented room in Satdobato, Lalitpur, on October 31 though the SC had had slapped him for the life term in 2010.
