By TRN Online, Kathmandu, July 26: The Supreme Court (SC) has assigned a full division bench of three justices to hear the review petition filed by the Office of Attorney General (OAG) against the SC's decision to reduce former Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Ranjan Koirala's sentence.

The full division bench comprises of justices Bam Kumar Shrestha, Prakash Kumar Dhungana and Kumar Regmi, informed Bhadrakali Pokharel, spokesperson of the SC.

The bench will decide whether or not to review the petition on the basis of existing evidence.

He was sentenced a lifetime imprisonment upon the order of the then Appellate Court, Patan, and the District Court of Kathmandu on January 22, 2012.

But Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher JB Rana and judge Tej Bahadur KC of the Apex Court gave the verdict with its full text prepared within 15 days of the order, to slash his lifetime imprisonment to eight and a half years.  

The SC's verdict mentioned that the lifetime jail sentence announced against Koirala became costly for him.' The SC also termed that the order of the Appellate and the District Court relevant but the lifetime jail term given to him as inappropriate.

Eight and a half years ago, Koirala had murdered his wife Geeta Dahakal and had taken the body to a forest of Tistung Palung in Makwanpur district by packing it in plastic and burnt the body there using petrol.

The joint bench of the Chief Justice and Justice KC announced the verdict in favour of defendant Koirala based on the section 188 of the new National Civil (Code) Act, 2017.

The SC had even ordered the District and Appellate Courts to release all the properties seized then as the new National Civil Code Act doesn't have a provision of confiscating all the properties if any person was sentenced for lifetime imprisonment.