"We are astonished by the verdict and the Government Attorney Office will file an appeal after receiving the full text of the verdict," said Gopal Prasad Rijal, the spokesperson at the Office of Attorney General.
A bench of Judge Kul Prasad Sharma had decided to slap a jail term of only three years and six months on Gupta and his accomplices Aakash Lama and Jeet Bahadur Gole.Other accused in the case, Amir Acharya, Kishore Pandey and Bishnu Laxam aka Aarju Subba were acquitted from the charges.
"We had filed the case along with evidences showing Gupta as the mastermind behind the kidnapping and sought 17-year jail term for him but the court has sentenced equal jail terms on both the mastermind and his aides," said Rijal.
The Office of the District Attorney General had sought the maximum jail term for Gupta as provisioned by the law: fifteen years for his involvement in abduction and additional two years for being a member of the kidnapping gang.
Sanghai, the owner of Arya Pharmaceuticals, was abducted on December 22, 2011 from Ganesh Temple in Kamaladi, Kathmandu and was released in the capital on January 11, 2012, after his family paid the abductors Rs 8.5 million.
Although evidences showed that the abductors took away the ransom amount of Rs 8.5 million, the court has asked fined only Rs 100,000 each from Gupta and two others.
The case was filed at the Kathmandu District Court in February 2012. As per the verdict, Gupta will come out of the jail after two months.
"After the full text comes out, we will be able to decide whether to appeal the verdict," said Rijal.
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