Morang Police filed the case prepared by the district attorney´s office late in the afternoon and therefore, the court couldn´t take statements of the accused due to lack of time.[break]
“The court will start recording statements from 10 am on Monday and hearing will start after the recording of statements is complete,” Spokesperson of Morang Police, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Deepak Thapa, said.
Police had filed the case against Basnet, Mukesh Budhathoki, Devanand Yadav and others despite pressures from Youth Association Nepal and KP Oli faction of CPN-UML cadres. Police have presented everyone except the fugitive Basnet to the court.
Basnet´s group had attacked jailbird Giri inside the Morang District Court premises, where he was taken for a hearing on a murder case, on June 1. Morang Police had initially filled a Public Offense case but the new leadership of Morang Police later changed it to attempted murder case under intense pressure from media and civil society.
DSP Thapa said there would be problem in timely recording of statements of the accused as judge Megh Nath Bhattarai has been transferred while registrar of the district court Bhishma Prasai is on leave.
YAN and Oli faction of CPN-UML are putting intense pressure for dropping the case against Basnet. YAN Chairman Mahesh Basnet, who publicly and repeatedly admitted to protecting fugitive Parshuram Basnet, threatened even the police officers while addressing a gathering organized by YAN in Biratnagar Saturday to mount pressure on the administration and police to drop charges against Parshuram.
He had also threatened to close down Nagarik daily, a sister publication of Republica daily, and throw Narayan Wagle, Editor-in-Chief of Nagarik daily, behind bars.
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