The Supreme Court has ordered the government to furnish written clarifications within seven days regarding its decision to grant amnesty to Yograj Dhakal ‘Regal’, a murder convict doing a 20-year jail term.

The Office of the President, Office of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers, Ministry of Home Affairs and District Administration Office, Banke have been made the defendants in the case. 

Responding to a writ from Bharati Sherpa, wife of Chetan Manandhar, whom Regal had murdered, a bench of Justice Manoj Kumar Sharma also ordered the government to provide security to the victim’s family.

The court has ordered the authorities to submit to it copies of all relevant decisions related to the case and ordered the Attorney-General to appear in the court in person on the day of the hearing.

President Ramchandra Paudel, acting on a recommendation from the Council of Ministers, had pardoned Regal on the occasion of the Constitution Day.

Manandhar’s family had objected to the presidential pardon and his wife had moved the apex court stating that the release was against the Constitution.

A gangster and the then president of Tarun Dal Banke-3, Regal used to extort transporters operating buses between Nepal and India. Regal had killed Manandhar at a hotel in Surkhet Road area on 13 July 2015. On 24 April 2018, a bench of Banke district court judge Bishnu Subedi had convicted Regal as the mastermind behind the crime and sentenced him to 20 years behind bars.

Regal, at large after the murder, had surrendered before the court after police launched a series of encounters against gangsters.