Kathmandu, March 22
The Kathmandu District Court on Monday handed down a six-month jail sentence to Prithvi Malla, the perpetrator involved in a notorious hit-and-run case in Budhanilakantha of Kathmandu in December 2019.
Stakeholders have questioned the verdict as the government attorney had demanded a 10-year jail term for him. But, a bench of Judge Surya Prasad Adhikari said only a part of the government’s side could be accepted.
Besides, the court has also told him to pay a fine of Rs 1,000.*
A car driven by Prithvi Malla, who did not have a driving licence and was drunk, had hit a pedestrian to death in Budhanilakantha, on December 14, 2019.
It is believed that Malla belongs to an influential family and he holds the potential to affect judicial verdicts also. When he was in judicial custody in connection with the case, in July 2020, a division bench of Supreme Court justices Sapana Pradhan Malla and Manoj Kumar Sharma had released him on Rs 500,000 bail.
*Earlier, the fine amount was reported to be Rs 10,000. Apologies for the inconvenience. – Ed.
