RAUTAHAT, Oct 21: Rautahat District Court remanded Mohammad Aftab Alam, a former minister accused of murdering nearly two dozen people in 2008, to police custody for five more days on Sunday for investigations. 

A single bench of judge Chanakya Mani Aryal gave permission to the District Police Office, Rautahat to keep Alam in custody for investigations into the charges. Alam was arrested by Rautahat Police on October 13 for his alleged involvement in a bomb blast and murder of at least 22 persons in 2008 in Rautahat.

This is the second time the court remanded him to police custody following his arrest. Meanwhile, Alam, who is said to be the ‘mastermind’ of the bomb blast, has not been cooperating with police in the investigation citing ‘poor health’.

Emerging from the court on Sunday, Alam claimed that no bomb blast had occurred in 2008. “The Office of Attorney General had closed the case as there was no evidence of a bomb blast. Since I had already received a clean chit, the state is conspiring against me by reopening the case now,” he told reporters.

Alam, who was elected as lawmaker on Nepali Congress ticket, has been accused of killing nearly two dozen persons in a massive blast in Rautahat. The blast, which allegedly occurred in Rautahat while Alam’s men were making bombs, had reportedly left 14 dead and eight injured. Alam then took the blast-injured and the dead to a nearby brick kiln and threw them into the furnace to destroy evidences of the blast.

Later, it was learnt that Alam’s men were making bombs to create terror in the Constituent Assembly elections in 2008 and capture booths. On May 29, 2012, the Supreme Court, revoking the decision of the Office of Attorney General and District Attorney Office to close the case, had ordered Rautahat Police to properly investigate the case.

The District Attorney Office (DAO), Rautahat, back in 2008, had closed the case citing the lack of evidence of the blast. Likewise, the Office of Attorney General had also upheld the decision of the DAO.

Meanwhile, two victims of the blast have already come in contact with the police. Rautahat Police has already recorded their statements.

Alam was elected a member in the first Constituent Assembly elections in 2008 from Rautahat Constituency-2. However, he lost the second Constituent Assembly elections in 2013. Likewise, Alam won from Rautahat Constituency-2 in the parliamentary elections of 2017.

 
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