A division bench of judges Purushottam Bhandari and Meghnath Bhattarai on Tuesday ordered the police to investigate the murder of Ujjan's elder brother Ganesh during the Maoist insurgency.Ganesh's son Bijay had filed a petition at the Appellate Court, Janakpur on February 18 claiming that the police did not investigate into complaints filed against Dhungel and his aides over the murder of his father.
Police had halted investigation into the murder case as UCPN (Maoist) has been demanding settlement war era cases through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The appellate court has stated that investigation into heinous crimes like murder should be dealt with under existing criminal laws. It has also ordered the police to complete investigation into the murder case within six months.
Earlier, the appellate court had issued a show cause notice to the District Police Office, Ramechhap and the District Attorney's Office asking them why the case was not investigated even a decade after receiving complaints from the victim's family.
The family had filed a complaint claiming that Ganesh was killed by a gang led by Dhungel for filing a complaint against Maoist cadres for murdering his younger brother Ujjan.
A group led by Dhungel had murdered Ujjain in Okhaldhunga on June 24, 1998. An attempt of the government led by Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai to withdraw the case against Dhungel was thwarted by the court order. Though Dhungel has been attending party functions, the Nepal Police has still not been able to nab him. Puskar Gautam, an accomplice to Ujjan's murder, has been serving jail term.
On the other hand, the murder case of Ganesh is yet to be registered in court. His family members have claimed that Tika Sunuwar, Raktim Lama and six others killed Ganesh in front of his daughter on the instructions of Dhungel on November 2, 2002 in Sanghutar, Ramechhap. His daughter later committed suicide.
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