The court finished taking the statement of Mukesh Budhathoki, among the 17 accused, on Monday while those of Devanand Yadav and Manoj Singh Rai would be recorded on Tuesday. [break]
Court sources said Budhathoki pleaded innocence in the case and claimed that he was arrested while he had gone to the office of Survey Department near the court to collect a map. "There was a clash inside the court and police took me under control striking me with a baton," a lawyer quoted Budhathoki as saying in his statement.
Budhathoki, who was at the forefront of the attack on Giri leading the group sent by main accused Morang chief of Youth Force (YF) Parshuram Basnet, had given the same statement to the police and repeated it at the court. Basnet is still absconding and the court has issued an arrest warrant against him.
Lawyers said preliminary hearing on the case will start from Wednesday when the new judge is expected to be present in the court. The functioning of the court has been affected after the transfer of Judge Meghraj Bhattarai, while registrar of the court Bhishma Prasai and administrator Bikash Shrestha are also on leave.
Eyewitnesses have claimed that Basnet was present on the court premises with his family on the day of attack. Basnet´s group had attacked jailbird Giri inside the court premises, where he was taken for a hearing on a murder case, on June 1. Morang Police had initially filed a public offense case and the new leadership of Morang Police later changed it to attempted murder case under intense pressure from the media and civil society.
Morang Police filed attempted murder case against the 17 accused at the court on Sunday despite pressure from YAN and cadres from the KP Oli faction of CPN-UML.
YAN Chairman Mahesh Basnet, who has publicly and repeatedly admitted to protecting fugitive Parshuram Basnet, had threatened even the police officers while addressing a gathering organized by YAN in Biratnagar Saturday to mount pressure on the administration and police to drop charges against Parshuram.
He had also threatened to close down Nagarik daily, a sister publication of Republica daily, and throw Narayan Wagle, the editor-in-chief of Nagarik daily, behind bars.
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