INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:

Lawyer of former speaker says he will file a habeas corpus petition to challenge Mahara judicial custody Kathmandu, December 19 Patan High

Court today upheld Kathmandu District Court decision to send former speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara, who has been accused of attempt to rape,

to judicial custody. The high court also ordered KDC to adjudicate the case against Mahara within one month after completing all court

proceedings, including the process to record statements of witnesses and the victim

The high court observed that since prima facie evidence went against Mahara, he could not be freed on bail or personal recognizance. The

high court said although Mahara denied going to the victim rented room on the day the alleged incident occurred, his aide-de&camp Kaji Ram

Rana Magar recorded his statement at the police saying that he accompanied Mahara to the victim place and Mahara had returned to his car

parked outside the victim home after almost one-and-half-hours

The high court also cited victim phone call to police, lawmaker Uma Regmi and her statement to journalist Ajay Babu Siwakoti telling them

that Mahara attempted to rape her. KDC had sent Mahara to judicial custody on November 4

He was arrested by Kathmandu police after Roshani Shahi, a staffer at the Parliament Secretariat filed an FIR on October 4, accusing him of

attempting to rape her on the night of September-29, in her rented room at Tinkune. Mahara filed a petition at the high court on November 21

challenging the District Court decision to send him to judicial custody

Mahara resigned from the post of speaker in the face of the accusation after the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) told him to quit both

posts of speaker and member of Parliament

Mahara was elected MP from Dang constituency-2. Babu Ram Dahal registrar at the high court said, &The division bench of judges Nahakul

Subedi and Tek Narayan Kunwar upheld the KDC order to send Mahara to judicial custody.& Mahara private lawyer Murai Prasad Sapkota said &We

had to knock the high court doors because the District Court misinterpreted the law

Mahara was denied opportunity of free and fair trial and the evidences produced before the court were not examined properly.& Sapkota also

said since his client was not entitled to move the Supreme Court with similar claim, he would now challenge his judicial custody through a

habeas corpus writ petition. Kathmandu District Attorney Office had filed case against Mahara seeking seven-and-half-years jail sentence —

five years for attempt to rape and two-and-half-years for committing the crime by misusing the power of office. Mahara was arrested on

October 6 in response to the FIR filed by Shahi

She later had turned hostile by telling various media that Mahara was innocent and he had not visited her room on the day of the alleged

incident

She had also filed a separate petition at the court stating that the police had coerced her to file the FIR against Mahara. Advocate Sapkota

said, &District Court issued the order without hearing statement of the so-called victim Roshani, who had been saying that Mahara never

entered her room and he was like a father figure for her.& The post Patan High Court denies bail to Mahara appeared first on The Himalayan

Times.