KATHMANDU, Jan 10: The government has submitted a written reply to the Supreme Court in the case of Charles Gurmukh Sobhraj, a French national convicted of a notorious crime. Sobhraj filed a writ petition at the Supreme Court on December 22 demanding that the government ‘provide relief to senior citizens’.
After initial hearings on the writ petition, the apex court sought a written reply from the government on whether Sobhraj should be given exemption or not. A single bench of Justice Anil Kumar Sinha on December 23 ordered a written reply.
According to the decision of the district court of Bhaktapur, Sobhraj will have to pay 20 years imprisonment as per the terms of a life sentence. He will have to stay in jail till September 18, 2023. Sobhraj has claimed in the writ petition that he had already served 17 of the 20 years of his sentence and had already been recommended for release as he was behaving well.
“The writ petitioner Sobhraj, who is 77 years old, has a heart condition and has been kept in jail against the law for not implementing the apex court’s order issued earlier,” reads the writ petition.
In the written response, the government has said that Sobhraj's crime had not been exempted and that he would not be exempted as he was a foreign national. “There is no provision in the law for the offender to be exempted due to age, disease or other reasons. Although the imprisonment can be reduced, it cannot be reduced in cases of killing, smuggling, rape, escape, assisted escape, etc.,” reads the written reply of the government.
The government's answer is that senior citizens should be understood as Nepali citizens who have reached the age of 60. And the exemption to senior citizens is only for Nepali citizens, it cannot be given to foreigners. Secretary at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers Dhanraj Gyawali submitted a written reply to the apex court.