Independent candidate, former Notorious gangster Rajiv Gurung alias Deepak Manange, who have elected as the province assembly member from Manang Province ‘Kha’ constituency is able to abscond from police custody. Police has formed a team to search him and get back to prison.
Manange, who was recently elected as an independent candidate to a provincial assembly seat from Manang district, has had several run-ins with the law on numerous criminal charges in the past.
Manange, who won the election as a candidate for the CPI (Maoist) election, has been convicted of criminal offenses as per Article 178. Now as the post of the Rajya Sabha member will also be dismissed.
The Tuesday’s SC ruling is related to a gang war that took place 13 years ago in the Capital, in which Manange and his men had attacked the rival gang leader Milan Gurung aka Chakre and his lackeys.
A joint bench of Justice Deepak Raj Joshi and Justice Purushottam Bhandari upheld the verdict handed down by the Patan Appellate Court in 2013, overturning the ruling of the Kathmandu District Court in the case.
The Kathmandu District Court had ruled out the attempted murder charge and ordered a two-year jail sentence to Manange in aggravated assault conviction. The court had also acquitted four of Manange’s accomplices, including gangster turned politician Ganesh Lama.
Dissatisfied by the court’s ruling, the government lawyers had knocked the door of the Patan Appellate Court, seeking punishment against the defendants.
The Patan Appellate Court in 2012 ruled the incident as an attempted murder case and ordered five years jail sentence to Manange, but upheld the Kathmandu District Court’s decision to acquit Manange’s four accomplices.
The Attorney General’s Office in May 2013 had moved the SC, seeking punishment to four of Manange’s accomplices as well.
Nearly five years after the case was registered for a reveiw of judgment, the SC on Tuesday decided to uphold the ruling of the Patan Appellate Court.
With the SC ruling, Manange will have to go back to prison. He also have to give up his provincial assembly seat since a convicted criminal cannot become a praliamentarian, according to the apex court.
Earlier, the CPN-UML’s Manang District Committee had unanimously recommended Manange’s name for the polls. The party’s Standing Committee, however, rejected his name, mainly owing to public criticism, according to a party source.
Just few weeks back, Manage defected the Rastriya Prajatantra Party and joined the UML with a hope to contest the polls. He was the elected chairman of the RPP Manang District Committee and all members of the committee had joined the UML along with him.
The UML has decided to field Khanda Lama Gurung in the constituency. Gurung had also joined the UML by defecting the RPP along with Manange.
