KATHMANDU, August 27: The hearing on the mass murder case registered at the Supreme Court (SC) against former Minister for Labor and Transport Management and a lawmaker of Nepali Congress (NC), Mohammad Aftab Alam, that was scheduled for Friday by the Supreme Court has been postponed. The hearing was scheduled to take place at the bench of justices Prakash Mansingh Raut and Prakash Kumar Dhungana.

Earlier, the District Court and High Court had sentenced Alam to jail on the charge of burning Trilok Pratap Singh ‘Pintu’ and Oshi Akthar and a dozen other people alive at a brick factory, who were victims of the 2008 Rautahat bomb attack. The blast, which occurred at the cowshed of Alam’s relative when the victims were making bombs, had allegedly left 14 dead and eight injured. Alam has been accused of taking the blast-injured and the dead to a nearby brick kiln and throwing them into the furnace to destroy evidence of the blast.

Earlier on May 29, 2012, the Supreme Court had ordered the government to conduct a proper investigation into the case and take action as per the law. Police were not able to take up the case as Alam was able to exert political pressure not to conduct any investigation into the case for years.

It was later learned that Alam had ordered the bombs to be made to create terror in the constituent assembly elections to secure his win. As per the police investigation, Alam had killed as many as eight witnesses inside the brick factory.

Alam was later arrested by a team of police led by Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Nabin Karki, while Alam was on his way to attend a tea reception organized by the Nepali Congress in 2019, based on the statements given by two people who were arrested for their alleged involvement in the blast during an interrogation. Alam was arrested 11 years after the blast.

Police have filed three separate charges against Alam in connection with the massacre. The prison term against him under all three charges will total up to 32 years. If not slapped with imprisonment until death, he will be facing 20 years in prison on the murder charge, 10 years more for attempting to murder and an additional two years for causing explosion.

 
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