The district court in Mahottari has acquitted Laxmi Mahato Koiri, the House of Representatives member elected from the CPN-UML, in the 2015 murder of an Armed Police Force (APF) officer.

According to Nutan Jha, registrar at the court, a single bench of judge Uddhav Prasad Bhattarai gave its verdict on Thursday. The court also acquitted Pawan Kapar, who was also charged in the murder and is in judicial custody.

The court, however, slapped life imprisonment on Loktantrik Samajbadi Party’s provincial assembly member Abhiram Sharma in the same case. Jha said the district court on Thursday also sentenced Ramashankar Mishra alias Shankar Shahi, Pradeep Sah, Sanjaya Kumar Sah, Mohan Thakur, Surendra Pandey and Dharmendra Raya to life imprisonment in the case. Pradeep Sah and Sanjaya Kumar Sah are already in judicial custody.

Koiri, who was elected to the federal parliament from Mahottari-1 in November 2022, was accused of murdering Assistant Sub Inspector Thaman BK. A murder case was filed against 28 people including Koiri while 25 others were also accused of arson.

Among the accused, 20 individuals including Ramesh Prasad Sah, Savindra Chaudhary, Chandeshwar Sah, Raja Chaudhary, Devendra Chaudhary, Naresh Sah, Golu Sah, Hari Om Kumar Bhagat, Ravindra Ram Chamar, Ranjit Sah, Vicky Sah, Phule Yadav, Rohit Kumar Sharma, Lalbabu Win, Shambhu Sah, Anit Thakur, Anil Thakur, Devendra Yadav and former provincial assembly member Koshlay Yadav are absconding.

Cases regarding other suspects of the murder are pending.

Koiri is accused of dragging the policeman from a police van and killing him on September 11, 2015 in Jaleshwar of Mahottari in. The Dhanusha District Court had released Koiri on a bail of Rs100,000. But the Janakpur High Court, overturning the decision of the district court, had issued an arrest warrant against him.

Koiri was suspended as a lawmaker in May this year following a letter from the Nepal Police seeking the Speaker’s support to arrest the UML lawmaker, who had been absconding for months.

According to officials at the Secretariat of the Federal Parliament, Koiri was suspended as per Rule 248 (3) of the House of Representatives Regulation 2023.