Sapkota case put off to Sunday

KATHMANDU, June 7: The scheduled hearing in the case involving Minister for Information and Communications Agni Sapkota at the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday was postponed to Sunday after plaintiff lawyers argued that an earlier verdict issued in a similar case by Top Bahadur Magar, a member of the joint bench, might influence his views on the current case.



"The hearing was postponed to Sunday after we made a request in this regard," said Hari Fuyal, a plaintiff lawyer in the case. [break]



Human rights activists including Subodh Pyakurel have filed a case against Minister Sapkota demanding that the SC order the government to suspend Sapkota for his alleged involvement in the murder of one Arjun Lama in Kavrepalanchowk district during the insurgency.



Earlier, in a similar case, an SC verdict delivered by Magar stated that the proposed Truth and Reconciliation Commission, as provisioned in the Interim Constitution, should take up the cases, including the criminal ones, and settle them.



Accompanied by his security guards, Minister Sapkota was present at the SC. While returning from the court, Purni Maya Lama, wife of Arjun Lama, had asked Sapkota: "You should give me my slain husband."



Then Sapkota had left the court without saying anything. Talking to Republica, Purni Maya said it was the first time she saw Sapkota face to face. "So I asked him to produce my husband," she said.

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