The notice was issued after police failed to arrest Basnet within seven days of the issuance of an arrest warrant, according to registrar at the district court Bhishma Raj Prasai. Prasai said Basnet´s property would be frozen if he doesn´t turn up at the court within 70 days.[break]
DSP at Morang District Police Office Deepak Thapa said the 70-day notice has been handed over to Basnet´s family on Monday but argued that he cannot turn up at the court in the period as he is also being tried for the court attack on Avishek Giri a few days before the attack on Dhakal.
The district court had earlier sent Biratnagar Youth Force in-charge Rohit Koirala and member Manoj Rai to judicial custody for further investigation into the case relating to abduction and attempted murder of Dhakal.
Dhakal was abducted from Traffic Chowk, Biratnagar on June 5 at night and brutally thrashed for writing news reports against Basnet. Morang district chapter of the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) had filed a complaint against Basnet and his accomplices at District Police Office, Morang a day after the attack.
Journos slam police probe team report
Meanwhile journalists of Sunsari and Morang have slammed the police probe team formed to investigate possible links between Basnet and DSP Sahakul Thapa for giving clean chit to the DSP.
Thapa was found to have had repeated telephone conversations with Basnet immediately after the attack on jailbird Avishek Giri on the district court premises and on journalist Dhakal over a month ago.
Police had formed a high-level probe committee under Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Koshi Zonal Police Office Mingmar Lama after the phone call details of Thapa and Basnet were made public.
The probe committee´s report says the conversations were about security arrangement for the visit of UML leader KP Oli to Biratnagar.
“The conversation was about the security arrangement for KP Oli and DSP Thapa had advised Basnet to immediately surrender to the authorities,” Deputy Inspector General (DIG) at the Eastern Regional Police Office Binod Singh said. “There have been no wrongdoings on DSP Thapa´s part according to the investigation,” DIG Singh added.
However, Oli was out of the country at the time and chief of the organizational front of Morang UML Rishikesh Pokharel said Oli had no formal schedule to visit Biratnagar over the past one-and-a-half month.
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