HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE
KATHMANDU: The Special Court today convicted late former minister Rabindra Nath Sharma of corruption and decided to confiscate Rs 22.7 million from his family.
A three-member bench of Judges Gauri Bahadur Karki, Om Prakash Mishra and Kedar Prasad Chalise took the decision — the first of its kind in which a former minister has been convicted of graft posthumously.
Stating that Section 176 of the Court Procedure Chapter of Muluki Ain, 1963 does not require punishing the deceased in any criminal case, the bench did not slap jail sentence.
Stating that Sharma died four years ago, the bench ruled that there was no need to slap jail sentence on him for corruption and additional jail sentence for abusing the authority, and therefore decided to ask his family to pay back the amount that the late minister had amassed illegally.
Late Sharma’s wife had been pursuing the case since his death in 2007.
The bench has decided to confiscate land in Baneshwor worth Rs 1.8 million — registered in the name of his son Sarad Gyawali and daughter-in-law Aruna Gyawali — and a house registered in the name of son Sarad at Bishnu VDC, Kathmandu, worth Rs 2.4 million. The bench also decided to confiscate some land Sharma owned in Nawalparasi and Palhi Printing Press.
The bench said Sharma was found to have made only Rs 14.5 million through his legitimate sources of income.
Demanding that Rs 42.4 million be confiscated from Sharma, the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority had filed the case a decade ago. Though the Special Court had given a clean chit to Sharma ‘on technical grounds’
some five years ago, CIAA filed an appeal at the apex court which referred the case back to the Special Court last year to test its merit.A three-member bench of Judges Gauri Bahadur Karki, Om Prakash Mishra and Kedar Prasad Chalise took the decision — the first of its kind in which a former minister has been convicted of graft posthumously.
Stating that Section 176 of the Court Procedure Chapter of Muluki Ain, 1963 does not require punishing the deceased in any criminal case, the bench did not slap jail sentence.
Stating that Sharma died four years ago, the bench ruled that there was no need to slap jail sentence on him for corruption and additional jail sentence for abusing the authority, and therefore decided to ask his family to pay back the amount that the late minister had amassed illegally.
Late Sharma’s wife had been pursuing the case since his death in 2007.
The bench has decided to confiscate land in Baneshwor worth Rs 1.8 million — registered in the name of his son Sarad Gyawali and daughter-in-law Aruna Gyawali — and a house registered in the name of son Sarad at Bishnu VDC, Kathmandu, worth Rs 2.4 million. The bench also decided to confiscate some land Sharma owned in Nawalparasi and Palhi Printing Press.
The bench said Sharma was found to have made only Rs 14.5 million through his legitimate sources of income.
Demanding that Rs 42.4 million be confiscated from Sharma, the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority had filed the case a decade ago. Though the Special Court had given a clean chit to Sharma ‘on technical grounds’
Sharma, a veteran politician during the 30-year Panchayat system, was believed to be one of the pillars of the then regime. Since his foray into politics in 1965, he was minister several times till the Panchayati regime fell in 1990.
Jurisprudential question arises
KATHMANDU: Stating that the criminal liability cannot be transferred to any other person after the death of the criminal, lawyers have raised jurisprudential question against the Special Court decision to convict late minister Rabindra Nath Sharma of corruption. Constitutional law expert Tikaram Bhattarai said now it is up to the apex court to decide whether it was appropriate to convict a deceased person. “As per the international practice, criminal liability cannot be transferred,” said Bhattarai, adding that now it has ‘become a unique case’. Krishna Sapkota, lawyer of late Sharma’s family, said he did raise the issue during the hearing but the judges went ahead with their decision. He said a corruption case is not like the revenue or the state treasury misuse offence. “So treating it in that fashion is against the criminal jurisprudence.”
KATHMANDU: Stating that the criminal liability cannot be transferred to any other person after the death of the criminal, lawyers have raised jurisprudential question against the Special Court decision to convict late minister Rabindra Nath Sharma of corruption. Constitutional law expert Tikaram Bhattarai said now it is up to the apex court to decide whether it was appropriate to convict a deceased person. “As per the international practice, criminal liability cannot be transferred,” said Bhattarai, adding that now it has ‘become a unique case’. Krishna Sapkota, lawyer of late Sharma’s family, said he did raise the issue during the hearing but the judges went ahead with their decision. He said a corruption case is not like the revenue or the state treasury misuse offence. “So treating it in that fashion is against the criminal jurisprudence.”
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