In a press statement, Shrestha said that she has already registered two separate applications at Nepal Police Headquarters and the ministry on Friday, seeking information regarding the implementation of SC verdict, as per the Right to Information (RTI) Act.As the Nepal Police headquarters has yet to appoint an information officer, Shrestha has addressed the Inspector General of Nepal Police in her application.
At the home ministry, however, under secretary and information officer of the ministry, Bhabishwar Pandey registered Shrestha's application. According to the archives of the home ministry, this is the third application filed by Shrestha, seeking information regarding the implementation status of the SC verdict against Dhungel.
Dhungel was convicted of Ujjan Kumar Shrestha's murder by the Okhaldhunga district court in 2004. The court had ordered life term for Dhungel but in 2006, the Appellate Court, Rajbiraj gave him a clean chit. He was elected Constituent Assembly member in 2008. But in 2010, the Supreme Court overturned the Appellate Court's decision, upholding the district court's decision that Dhungel should get life term.
But Dhungel was never sent to jail and he continued to walk free despite the SC order. His party, the UCPN (Maoist) protected him, claiming that Ujjan Shrestha's murder was a political case and that it should be dealt with by a transitional justice body.
In 2011, the then Baburam Bhattarai-led government forwarded Dhungel's name to the President's Office for clemency. But Sabitri moved the SC seeking annulment of the government's decision.
In January this year, the SC ruled that Dhungel cannot be pardoned, reiterating its previous order issued in 2010 to imprison him.
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