“I hate this name now. Can I get a new citizenship under another name?” Maharjan asks this scribe.
The 30-year-old spent 39 months at Nakkhu Jail on a murder charge merely because his name is Bikram Maharjan. He was acquitted by the Supreme Court on Sunday.
Case History
One Prem Awale was killed in a brawl at Sundhara, Patan during a concert on the day of Deepawali in 1998. Awale´s father Chandra then filed a case, with Manoj Maharjan, a friend of Prem´s who was with him at the time, as eye-witness. Manoj had named some individuals, saying he had seen them as he fled the scene.
Police made a couple of arrests. Bikram was unaware of the case until everything suddenly went wrong for him. He was arrested the night of July 5, 2006 from Mangal Bazar, Patan where he had gone to watch a public screening of the FIFA World Cup semifinal between Portugal and France.
“A policeman came to me and asked if I was Bikram,” he reminisces. He was then taken to the District Police Office at Jawalakhel where he was kept for two days.
The District Court sent him into judicial custody and he had to watch the final match between Italy and France with other inmates at Nakkhu Jail. “I have never seen or known that person (Prem Awale). I was arrested merely because of my name,” he fumes.
Manoj Maharjan had named one Bikram Maharjan of Lalitpur-17 as one of the culprits in the brawl and police apprehended Bikram after taking about eight years to decide he was the culprit. “There are seven Bikram Maharjans in our ward. They nabbed me even though the accuser (Manoj) said he couldn´t recognize the persons involved as he was fleeing the spot during the brawl,” Bikram says.
Bikram adds that police at Nakkhu Jail had to introduce him to another person, supposedly his accomplice in the crime, who was completing his own jail term there.
After about a year, the District Court convicted him on the basis of similarity of name and address. The court ironically showed some mercy, invoking Clause 188 and slapping only a seven-year sentence. The Patan Appellate Court upheld the verdict a few months later.
“The apex court acquitted him saying it could not be established that he was the Bikram Maharjan involved in the brawl,” says Dr Rajit Bhakta Pradhananga, Bikram´s lawyer.
Dr Pradhananga, who fought Bikram´s case along with senior advocate Basanta Ram Bhandary, maintains that the eyewitness changed his statement regarding Bikram Maharjan´s address many times during hearings at the district and appellate courts.
“The Supreme Court finally acquitted Bikram as the eyewitness and the family of Prem Awale didn´t turn up at the court when summoned,” Dr Pradhananga adds.
Life after jail
“I was sent to jail for a crime which I did not commit. It was mental torture. I was totally depressed and wept in the corner of my cell on numerous occasions,” he recalls.
The highschool dropout was running one of two brick factories owned by his family. Following his conviction the factory has been shut down and only the other one his father used to run and is now handled by his younger brother, remains in operation. “I could have earned millions in that period,” he argues.
But more than monetary loss, he has been stigmatized for life. “I feel no joy whatsoever about the Supreme Court´s ruling. It may have acquitted me legally but the social stigma will remain for life,” he says.
“People will not know or care that I was acquitted. They will always treat me like a convicted murderer. I will never be trusted in business and I may have to leave the country,” he adds.
In the three days since the acquittal--mostly spent visiting temples as promised by his family--he says he has been wearing a mask lest he be recognized by prying locals. He refuses to be photographed of course.
To make matters worse, he is still unmarried and fears he can never marry now because of the stigma. “My younger brother is married but I have made up my mind to never marry.”
His mother Surja was shocked by his arrest and had to be taken to Norvic Hospital where she spent a month. She still takes medication for the heart. “It was unbearable. Everything became gloomy. Festivals and parties became an ordeal as they reminded us of him,” she says.
“I didn´t have the strength to deal with the tragedy and it took a toll on my health. Things became a little more bearable only after I sought refuge in religion and joined Om Shanti,” she says.
Though nothing can restore his loss, Bikram feels that some sort of compensation would be a consolation. But he is told he has no legal grounds to seek consolation. “The Maoists who murdered thousands in the name of their party have been acquitted. Those who were detained have been compensated but a commoner like me who has been wrongly convicted cannot get any compensation. What kind of egalitarian system is this,” he asks.
premdhakal@myrepublica.com
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