Courts shut to protest Justice Bam's murder

HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE

KATHMANDU: All courts — the Supreme Court, Appellate Court, District Court, Administrative Court, Revenue Tribunal and the Labour Court— across the country remained shut today to mourn the May 31 assassination of Supreme Court Justice Rana Bahadur Bam in Lalitpur and condemn the heinous crime as per the decision of a full-court meeting held on Friday.

While police remain clueless regarding the identities of the assassins and the motive behind the murder, the government has come under fire for failing to give people a sense of security across the country in general and the Kathmandu Valley in particular.

The government has formed a high-level probe panel under AIG Kuber Singh Rana to investigate the broad daylight shooting and bring the guilty to book. However, the team comprising noted police investigators has been finding it hard to unravel the murder mystery. So much so, the officials have not even been able to draw sketches of the gunmen.

“A sketch of a suspect is very important to expedite a probe. As the eyewitnesses could not see the faces of the motorcycle-borne masked gunmen, we have no idea how they look like,” an official said.

Police had managed to draw the sketches and identify the shooters of Jamim Shah and Faizan Ahmed based on details that eyewitnesses provided. A few hours after Bam’s assassination, police had found an unclaimed motorcycle with a fake registration plate in Subidhanagar and suspected that the gunmen may have used it to murder Bam.

However, the motorcycle seems to offer no clue with a ‘rightful owner’ reporting to police that it is his bike that was stolen four months ago.

The official said police still hope that the bike will offer vital clues. It should be noted that most of the bikes lifted in the valley end up in other districts as the thieves do all they can to evade police checking. So, the recovery of the stolen bike in the valley has police surprised.

So far, police, citing circumstantial evidence, have come to the conclusion that Bam’s murder was premeditated and professional criminals were involved. Plainclothes police personnel have fanned out across the country to gather intelligence inputs about the assailants.

Driver released

KATHMANDU: Police on Sunday released Asta Lama, driver of the slain Supreme Court Justice Bam, on general date after four days in custody. Lama was driving Bam’s car on Thursday when gunmen shot dead the judge and injured two others. Lama had escaped unscathed.