Alam remanded for eight more days

Published On: October 26, 2019 09:50 AM NPT By: Madan Thakur

RAUTAHAT, Oct 26: The District Court, Rautahat on Friday remanded former minister Mohammad Aftab Alam in custody for eight more days.

A single bench of judge Keshav Kumar Pandey extended the custody for further investigation into the case involving Alam, who is accused of committing several murders in 2008 in Rautahat. This is the third time the district court extended his remand in police custody.

On October 13, Alam, who is also an incumbent Nepali Congress (NC) lawmaker, was arrested for his involvement in a blast, which allegedly killed 14 persons and left eight others injured. Alam is accused of throwing the dead and the blast-injured to a nearby brick-kiln to destroy evidences of the bomb blast.

Following the order of the Rautahat District Court, Alam said that his arrest is unjustified and against the law, and it is a planned conspiracy by the police to assassinate his character. Alam has been claiming that no bomb blast occurred in Rautahat in 2008.

Alam has been refusing to record his statement citing poor health. He has also refused to undergo polygraph test [lie detector test], so the police had requested the district court to remand his custody for further investigation into the case.

Police have also started trying to contact the kin of several Indian citizens who were allegedly killed in the bomb blast. Several Indians, who were hired by Alam to make bombs for creating terror on the eve of the election in 2008, were also allegedly killed and injured in the blast.

Alam was an elected lawmaker from Rautahat Constituency-2 in the first Constituent Assembly elections in 2008. But he lost the second Constituent Assembly elections in 2013. But he was elected to the federal parliament in 2017 from Rautahat Constituency-2.

Alam was arrested following an order of the Supreme Court. On May 29, 2012, the Supreme Court, revoking the decision of the Office of Attorney General and District Attorney Office (DAO), had ordered to properly investigate the case.