However, as Batala alias Jibit, has been in judicial custody in a Bharatpur jail for the last three years, the jail sentence imposed on him for the murder already ended on Tuesday. He was taken into police custody on another charge, that of kidnapping Shrestha. The District Police Office (DPO) Kathmandu will now file a case against Batala for detaining Shrestha. [break]
Shrestha, a Koteshwor-based businessman, was kidnapped by a group of Maoist cadres, evidently headed by Batala himself, from his house on April 29, 2008. Shrestha´s body was found in the Trishuli River in the Jugedi area of Chitwan district on May 26. Later, a postmortem established that Shrestha was beaten to death.
According to Batala after he surrendered to police earlier on May 17, Shrestha was detained for interrogation concerning a theft of over Rs 1.5 million and arms from his house. The Maoists had set up a liaison office at the house for their People´s Liberation Army (PLA) third division.
Ramila Shrestha, Ramhari´s widow, filed case at Chitwan district court against Batala, Kali Bahadur Khama alias Bibidh, who was then commander of the third division camp, Keshav Adhikari alias Raghu, and Ganga Bahadur Thapa alias Atom.
Ramila demanded life imprisonment for Batala, Adhikari and Thapa for their direct involvement in her husband´s kidnapping and detention, and a maximum of 15 years for Kham as the camp commander at the time the incident occurred.
The court sentenced Batala to only three years in jail, citing lack of adequate proof. As the other accused -- Kham, Adhikari and Thapa-- are still at large, the court has yet not delivered any verdict against them. Additional District Judge Bhoj Raj Adhikari said the court would deliver its verdict on the rest of the accused after hearings for both sides.
After the verdict, Ram Narayan Bidari, counsel for Batala, said it would not be logical to put his client behind bars on a charge of kidnap after the court has already sentenced him to jail for murder.
Batala has maintained that Adhikari and Thapa had thrashed Shrestha in the room where he was detained, and he himself only threw Shrestha´s body into the river after he died on the way to hospital.
Sentence too lenient: Ramila
KATHMANDU: Ramila Shrestha, wife of Ram Hari Shrestha, has expressed dissatisfaction over the verdict and called the sentence too lenient. "I have yet to learn about the details of the verdict but I have been told that he was handed down a three-year sentence for being an accomplice in the murder," Ramila told Republica.
"He (Batala) took my husband from my home. He then took him to Chitwan and himself kept the keys of the room where my husband was detained, inside the cantonment. He then took my husband out of the cantonment for treatment and threw the body into the river after murder. I am baffled, how can he be just an accomplice," she fumed.
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