Friday, September 15, 2006

SC quashes Sobhraj’s Petitions

The Supreme Court on Thursday quashed two separate writ petitions filed by alleged international serial killer Charles Gurumukh Sobhraj and his lawyers.

The apex court repealed a two-year-old writ filed by advocate Sanjeev Ghimire on behalf of Sobhraj seeking order to the government authorities to shift Sobhraj to a normal jail room from the high-security Sundhara-based Central Jail.

Announcing the verdict, a division bench of justices Top Bahadur Magar and Kalyan Shrestha said: "There is no need to issue any order as sought by the petitioner as Shobhraj is being detained there as per the order of the Ministry of Home Affairs."

Sobhraj is being detained in the Central Jail for the last three years after he made an unsuccessful attempt to break the jail.

Sobhraj's appeal is pending at the SC after the Kathmandu District Court and Patan Appellate Court imposed 20-year jail term for killing an American backpacker Connie Jo Bronzich in Nepal in 1975.

The petitioner had made the Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Ministry of Home Affairs and the jail administration defendants and sought SC order to shift Sobhraj to a normal jail room.

The bench also quashed another writ filed by Sobhraj's lawyers, including Rajaram Dhakal, Ram Bandhu Sharma and Sanjeev Ghimire, seeking the apex court order to the government authorities to allow them to meet Sobhraj frequently.

The bench quashed the second writ saying that there was no need to issue such an order, as the lawyers have told the apex court that the authorities have currently allowed them to meet their client.

In the petition, the lawyers had claimed that the authorities had infringed their client's right to consult the lawyers of his choice.

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