Sunday, September 18, 2005

SC Show Cause to RCCC in Deuba’s Case

Kathmandu, Sept18, The Supreme Court today issued a show case notice to the Royal Commission for Corruption Control (RCCC) demanding the commission explain why former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and former minister Prakash Man Singh were kept in custody.
The court issued the notice in response to two separate habeas corpus petitions filed in the court on Friday seeking release of Nepali Congress (Democratic) president Deuba and the party’s CWC member Singh.The court said the two leaders, however, need not to be produced before the court as demanded by the petitioners to produce them before the court within 24 hours.
Deuba and Singh are serving a two-year jail term slapped by the commission for their alleged involvement in corruption in Melamchi Drinking Water Project.
Advocates Binod Karki and Sarvagya Naya have jointly challenged the sentence slapped by the Commission on Deuba and Singh.The petitioners had appealed to the apex court to issue order to the Cabinet Secretariat and the RCCC to produce the two leaders before the apex court within 24 hours and release them.
The petitioners have claimed that leaders should not be kept in jail based on a verdict given by an illegal commission, as the formation of the RCCC itself was illegal.

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