Nepal’s Supreme Court on Sunday granted approval to review a division bench’s decision to reduce former Armed Police Force deputy chief Ranjan Koirala’s life imprisonment sentence in a murder case.
Kathmandu District Court and Lalitpur High Court sentenced Koirala to life imprisonment for killing his wife Gita Dhakal more than eight years ago. However, a division bench of Chief Justice Cholendra SJB Rana and Justice Tej Bahadur KC recently reversed the verdict, waiving 11 years of his prison term.
The Office of the Attorney General filed a review petition, amid mounting pressure from the public to impeach Chief Justice Rana and Justice KC.
During the review petition hearing on Sunday, a three-member apex court bench of justices Bam Kumar Shrestha, Prakash Kumar Dhungana and Kumar Regmi decided to review the apex court’s decision.
The apex court in its earlier verdict stated that the objective to punish Koirala was already met and there was no need to keep him in jail.
However, the verdict passed by the division bench of Justices Rana and KC courted serious controversy.
Several organisations staged demonstrations against the chief justice in Kathmandu and the verdict also invited severe criticism of the apex court on social media.
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