The Supreme Court has quashed its decision to reduce the life imprisonment of former Deputy Inspector General Ranjan Koirala on May 26, 2022. Koirala was proven guilty of killing his wife and more than 11 and half years of his sentence was reduced by a joint bench after which Koirala was released on July 23, 2020.
Koirala was found convicted of the murder of his wife Gita Dhakal and was sentenced to jail for a lifetime. The Supreme Court had on July 26, 2020, decided to review a judgment passed by the division bench of Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana and Justice Tej Bahadur KC to reduce punishment for Koirala.
Koirala was released on July 23, 2020, after the division bench of Rana and KC said on June 29 that he could be released after serving eight years and six months in jail arguing that the life imprisonment was too harsh since the children of the guilty are minors and the verdict is not humanitarian.
The accused was in custody for eight and a half years in prison and released.
The Office of the Attorney General had filed a review writ in the Supreme Court on July 23, 2020, saying that the decision was flawed. A joint bench of Justices Bam Kumar Shrestha, Prakash Kumar Dhungana and Kumar Regmi had ordered to review of the verdict on August 1, 2020.
With the decision of the full bench of the Supreme Court, Koirala will now have to complete the remaining 11 and a half years of imprisonment. Koirala had killed his wife Gita Dhakal on January 12, 2012, and had taken her to a forest in Tistung, Makwanpur in a plastic bag and set her on fire by sprinkling petrol on the corpse.
Father of the victim Hare Ram Dhakal had lodged a complaint against Koirala at the Metropolitan Police Circle, Maharajgunj on January 20, 2012, after Gita went missing.
The Kathmandu District Court had sentenced Koirala to life imprisonment on April 20, 2014, after considering the nature of the incident and the police investigation.
Koirala had appealed the Patan High Court (then Appellate Court) as he was not satisfied with the decision of the district court.
The High Court had dismissed Koirala’s appeal on December 9, 2015, stating that the district court’s verdict was correct.
The appellate court’s verdict stated that the court should not facilitate the reduction of imprisonment as per 188 of the then Civil Code in case the court does not cooperate with the judicial process by denying Koirala’s guilt while hearing the appeal.