CHITWAN, July 1: Two then Maoist activists who were convicted for tearing up ballot papers during the election in Bharatpur Metropolis in 2017 have been handed down with fine of Rs 100,000 each.
The District Court Chitwan decided to fine Drona Bahadur Shiwakoti and Madhu Neupane with the mentioned amount, informed Rudra Mani Giri of the court.
Earlier, after more than two years of the incident, Chitwan District Court on June 13 convicted Shiwakoti and Neupane for tearing up ballot papers during the election in Bharatpur Metropolis in 2017. Both – two cadres of the then CPN (Maoist Center) – were convicted for tearing up some of the ballots during vote counting in Ward 19.
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On May 29, 2017, two Maoist cadres tore up some ballots when the vote counting was nearing completion and Renu Dahal, the mayor of Bharatpur, was a little behind CPN-UML’s Devi Prasad Gyawali in the count. Of the 29 wards in the metropolis, counting of the ballots in all wards other than 19 and 20 was already complete. Soon after the ballot-tearing incident, the two Maoists were held by police.
The vote counting was then halted and reelection held in the ward.
In the re-election, Renu Dahal, daughter of the former prime minister and current chair of the ruling NCP Pushpa Kamal Dahal, defeated Gyawali by a slim margin.
Two days after the ballot-tearing incident, a case was filed against the two Maoists. Though they were arrested on the spot, they were freed on bail of
Rs 100,000 a day later.
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