The CJ´s revelation comes nearly three weeks after the council suspended Hetauda Appellate Court Judge Tej Bahadur Karki for his controversial decision to release Sanjay Shrestha, Rohit Paliwan Agrawal and Bhimsen Pandit who were repeatedly arrested by the police on kidnap and murder charges but later freed by the judges on bail. [break] The trio has also been accused of kidnapping Dr Bhaktaman Shrestha a few months ago.
The council had formed the committee led by Justice Balaram KC on July 15 to probe into the controversial decisions of the judges to release the trio.
"Earlier, the Judicial Council decided to suspend Hetauda Appellate Court Judge Tej Bahadur Karki for his decision to release the offenders. Now, evidences show that other judges were also involved in releasing them by overruling the quasi-judicial bodies´ decisions to convict them," Shrestha told Republica.
Shrestha said he has already authorized the KC-led committee to investigate into Justice Bam and Basnet for their controversial decisions to release the offenders on very low bail amounts.
Evidences collected by the probe committee show that a division bench of Justice Bam, in his capacity as the chief judge of Patan Appellate Court, and Judge Basnet had released the trio on Rs 100,000 bail, overruling a decision of Kathmandu District Administration Office, which had slapped three years of jail and Rs 22,000 fine on each of them for possessing arms and ammunition.
The trio was arrested again on kidnap charges but a single bench of Kathmandu District Court Judge Tej Bahadur Karki released them on a bail despite the fact that they had confessed to the police that they were involved in kidnapping and possessing arms and ammunition.
Based on initial evidences, the council chaired by the CJ had suspended Judge Karki three weeks ago.
Asked why the council didn´t suspend Bam and Basnet, the chief justice said, "Suspending a permanent SC justice is beyond the jurisdiction of the council. The probe committee can only recommend the parliament to take action against a permanent SC justice if he is found guilty. The committee, upon completion of its investigation, may recommend action against Bam." He clarified that the council will take a decision on Basnet after the probe committee´s recommendation.
"The probe committee will leave no stone unturned to dig out the facts about the controversial decisions issued by the judges to repeatedly free arrested offenders" he said.
The council initiated investigation into Bam, Basnet and Karki after the arrest of the trio on charges of kidnapping Dr Bhaktaman Shrestha a few months ago. The trio has claimed that they had bribed the judges many times in the past.
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