KATHMANDU, Sept 8: The Supreme Court on Monday unveiled a full text of the judgement involving a match-fixing case against half a dozen football players. The court stated that prosecuting players for treason was erroneous application of law.
A division bench of justices Ananda Mohan Bhattarai and Bam Kumar Shrestha had delivered the verdict on June 16, and the full text of the judgment was made public on Monday.
In the 29-page judgment, the apex court states: "It does not seem suitable to invoke the law while prosecuting the case. Since the law itself was invoked improperly, therefore there was no need to enter into the merit of the case and evaluate the grounds for prosecution."
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Underlining that the prosecution was made under the wrong application of law, the apex court upholds years-old decision of the Special Court, and scrapped the case itself.
The apex court acquitted Sagar Thapa, former captain of the Nepali national football team, along with four other players, coach KC and physiotherapist Dejiv.
Former captain Thapa, vice-captain Sandip Rai, goalkeeper Ritesh Thapa, defender Bikash Singh Chhetri and coach Anjan KC and physiotherapist Dejiv were arrested on October 15, 2015 on charges of match-fixing in international games that Nepal played between 2008 and 2014, in return for cash payments.
Earlier in June 2018, the Special Court had given a clean-chit to the players. However, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has imposed lifetime bans for match-fixing on four players and an official.
