KATHMANDU, June 28:The District Court, Lalitpur on Monday has handed down life term to the murderers of Justice Rana Bahadur Bam.

Justice Bam was shot dead at the UN Park in Lalitpur on May 31, 2012, while he was heading for work after offering puja at Bagalamukhi Temple.

A bench of Judge Om Prasad Aryal gave the verdict on the murder case on Monday and gave life imprisonment to Megh Bahadur Thapa aka Babu Thapa and Deepak Kumar Karna. Likewise, the bench sentenced confiscation of properties along with life imprisonment to Shiva Chaudhary aka Karan and Sanjaya Ismaili Magar aka Bhagawan Thapa.

The bench has also sentenced additional 12 years jail term to four of them for their attempt to murder Justice Bam's driver and the justice's friend Ram Giri.

Likewise, the district court has given five-year jail to Prem Raj Khadka, an accomplice in the murder.

The Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police had arrested four of them in January, 2015 almost three years after the murder. After this, Ismaili Magar, who had been absconding, was arrested in Saudi Arabia on March 11, 2015 on the murder charge and he had confessed to having been part of the high-profile murder.

Babu Thapa had plotted to kill the justice to avenge the court's issuance of an interim order in a case relating to leadership row in the Chure-Bhawar Party. Keshav Mainali was chairman of the party while Thapa was vice-chairman. The two had led their own factions and formed parallel central committees through separate general conventions. The Election Commission in 2009 pronounced the Thapa-led group as authentic. However, a bench of Justice Bam had overturned that decision and authenticated the Mainali-led group.

Thapa had confessed to police that he plotted the murder in revenge of Justice Bam's stay order giving continuity to Mainali's chairmanship of the party. Thapa had said that Justice Bam's interim order prevented him from becoming minister.

 
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