Morang district court judge Chandi Raj Dhakal ordered the District Police Office (DPO) to put Basnet in judicial custody for further investigation.[break]
On Monday, Basnet´s 14 lawyers had pleaded that he was not involved in his housemaid Urmila Rajbanshi´s death. Urmila, 26, was found dead in the night of October 7 at Basnet´s house. She had been working at Basnet´s house for the last three years. On Sunday, public prosecutors had demanded jail sentence for Basnet.
Urmila´s husband Rajkumar had filed a case against Basnet, accusing him of raping and murdering his wife. Acting upon Rajkumar´s written complaint, the police had arrested Basnet.
As Basnet´s trial that began on last Friday lasted for the three working days, two different groups of people -- one in favor of Basnet and another against him -- staged rallies and demonstrations. Police have beefed up security to avert possible clash. A group of around 200 policemen, including Armed Police Force (APF) personnel led by DSP Uma Prasad Chaturbedi were deployed around the district court throughout Basnet´s trial.
A struggle committee, especially consisting of local representatives of indigenous organizations, has demanded strict action against Basnet claiming that he raped and killed the woman from indigenous community, while the local Brahmin-Chhetri Samaj maintains that Basnet has been unnecessarily victimized.
After three weeks of investigation, the police have already submitted Urmila´s postmortem and viscera reports, which showed that she had consumed poison. However, it is not certain as to whether she consumed poison by herself or she was forced to consume poison.
Basnet, who is the chairman of a supermarket in Biratnagar and runs other business outlets, was taken to a local jail on Monday following the court´s order.
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