Former lawmaker Laxmi Mahato (Koiri) of the CPN-UML, who had been acquitted by the Mahottari District Court, was convicted by the Janakpur High Court on July 1, 2026, in the killing case of Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Thaman BK and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.
A joint bench of Judges Tek Narayan Kunwar and Murari Babu Shrestha overturned the Mahottari District Court’s verdict, revising the life imprisonment provision and sentencing Mahato to five years in jail.
Earlier, on December 14, 2023, a single bench of Mahottari District Court Judge Uddhav Prasad Bhattarai had sentenced Provincial Assembly member and Democratic Socialist Party parliamentary party leader Abhiram Sharma, along with Pradeep Sah Majhi, Sanjay Sah, Ram Shankar Mishra, Suresh Pandey, and Dhamrendra Rai, to life imprisonment. In the murder case of ASI BK, the Mahottari District Court had acquitted the accused Pawan Kapar and House of Representatives member Laxmi Mahato.
The murder case was filed on August 13, 2018, against 28 individuals, including UML House of Representatives member Mahato, in connection with the killing of ASI BK during the Madhesh Movement on September 11, 2015, which was launched to secure the constitutional rights of the Madheshi community. The High Court also upheld the life imprisonment verdict against Pradeep Sah Majhi, Sanjay Kumar Sah, and Mohan Thakur after finding them guilty of murder under Section 13(3) of the Chapter on Homicide of the National Code (Muluki Ain).