Supreme Court postpones hearing of Krishna Prasad Adhikari’s murder case

Kathmandu, November 27 — The hearing on Krishna Prasad Adhikari's murder has been postponed by the Supreme Court. He was from Fujel, Gorkha.

The case was scheduled to be heard in a bench of Justices Binod Sharma and Abdul Ajij Musalman. However, due to a backlog of cases already under consideration, the case did not come up for hearing.

This case, which was registered at the Supreme Court on July 13, 2021, has not been heard for a long time. The dispute came to the Supreme Court after the Hetauda bench of the High Court of Patan upheld the Chitwan District Court's decision to acquit all those accused of the murder of Krishna Prasad Adhikari on April 11, 2021.

The Supreme Court has only heard the case once. The first hearing took place on April 25, 2024, where the court ordered that notices be sent to all the defendants, including the government.

This order was issued by Justices Kumar Chudal and Til Prasad Shrestha. Since then, all subsequent hearings have been postponed. Although there was a possibility of hearing the case on Wednesday, it was postponed due to the backlog of cases, and now it will be postponed for at least three months.

Krishna Prasad Adhikari from Fujel, Gorkha, was murdered in 2004 in Chitwan. The accused, who were allegedly members of the Maoist party during the conflict, were accused of kidnapping and killing Krishna Prasad.

The case has been ongoing in various courts for years. Krishna Prasad's father, Nanda Prasad Adhikari, filed a complaint, and the district court began investigating the murder.

Nanda Prasad and his wife, Gangamaya, claimed that 12 people, including Sita Adhikari and Chhabilal Poudel from Gorkha, were involved in the murder. The case was later taken to the Supreme Court after the Chitwan District Court acquitted all the accused in 2018.

The Chitwan District Court had ruled that there was no sufficient evidence to prove the accused’s involvement in the murder, leading to their acquittal. The government then appealed the decision to the higher courts, leading the case to the Supreme Court.

Krishna Prasad was abducted and murdered on the June 7, 2004, after visiting his grandfather in eastern Chitwan. His body was found in the Bakulhar area of Ratnanagar after his abduction. Following his murder, Gangamaya and Nanda Prasad led protests, including hunger strikes, demanding justice for their son.

In 2013, a case was filed against 13 individuals in the Chitwan District Court. One of the accused was absconding, and his case was deferred.

Gangamaya, refusing to perform the last rites for her husband, Nanda Prasad, until the murderers were punished, still keeps Nanda Prasad's body at Tribhuvan Teaching Hospital in Maharajganj.