KATHMANDU: Nepali Congress leader Mohammad Aftab Alam has been acquitted by the Birgunj bench of the High Court Janakpur.

The verdict of life imprisonment issued by the Rautahat District Court on 13 Baisakh 2081 B.S. (25 April, 2024) has been overturned by a division bench comprising Justices Khusi Prasad Tharu and Arjun Maharjan of the High Court.

Alam had been serving a life sentence after Rautahat District Court Judge Matrika Prasad Acharya sentenced him in connection with a deadly incident.

The High Court acquitted Alam by reversing all four charges filed against him.

However, the Court upheld the Rautahat District Court’s earlier verdict in a separate case in which Alam was not named as a defendant, relating to charges of attempted murder and culpable homicide involving the use of explosives, including bombs.

Alam had been accused of placing injured victims alive into a brick kiln following a bomb explosion in Rajpur, Rautahat on 27 Chaitra 2064 B.S. (9 April 2008).

He was arrested on 26 Asoj 2076 B.S. (13 October 2019), while serving as an elected Member of Parliament from Rautahat-2.

The police had filed a case against him on charges of murdering 14 individuals in connection with the 2008 incident.

Alam was arrested nearly 12 years after the incident, directly from his residence in Rautahat.