The Rautahat District Court has handed former Nepali Congress leader and ex-minister Mohammad Aftab Alam life imprisonment in connection with the 2008 deaths of at least two persons in a bomb blast in Rajpur of the district. Three others involved in the same case also got life terms.

On Thursday, Judge Matrika Prasad Acharya's bench issued the verdict against Alam and three others. The court slapped life imprisonment on Alam, his younger brother Mohammad Mahatab Alam, Shekh Saraj and Badri Sahani. The court, however, acquitted Mukti Sah, another accused.

“Four suspects including Alam have been sentenced to life imprisonment as per the existing civil code. Cases against six other suspects who are on the run—Mohammad Mobin, Shekh Fajale, Shekh Bhadi, Shahil Alam, Gauri Shankar Sah and Shekh Jumai—have been kept pending," said Uddhav Dhodari, the court registrar.

On the eve of the first Constituent Assembly elections in 2008, some individuals were injured in a blast inside a shed in ward 4 of the then Rajpur Phardawa Village Development Committee (now ward 4 of Rajpur Municipality).

A case had been filed against Alam and 10 others on November 4, 2019, accusing them of killing those injured in the blast. At least two of the injured were allegedly burnt alive after they were thrown into the furnace of a brick kiln.

The court issued its final verdict following a continuous hearing that began Monday. District Attorney Badri Bahadur Karki, advocate Pushpa Raj Paudel and Dinanath Rijal argued on behalf of the plaintiff, while Gopal Krishna Ghimire among other law practitioners defended Alam and his men in the court.

Police had arrested Alam on October 13, 2019 and the Rautahat District Court had remanded him in judicial custody on November 15, 2019. The disgraced Congress leader and former minister Alam has been in judicial custody at Nakkhu jail in Lalitpur. His brother Mahatab is in Gaur Prison, Rautahat.

Police had registered charges of ‘attempted murder’ and ‘possession and transportation of explosive materials’ against Alam and his men, and they were also accused of throwing the injured people into a brick kiln "to destroy evidence". Media reports said the blast happened when Alam’s men were making bombs in the shed on the eve of the elections.

In the chargesheet, Alam and his men were accused of throwing Trilok Pratap Singh and Osi Akhtar, among others, who were severely injured in the blast, into the kiln’s furnace, in an attempt to destroy evidence of bomb-making.

Following the incident, Trilok’s father Shrinarayan Singh and Akhtar’s mother Roksana Khatun filed complaints against Alam and his accomplices. Alam and three others had been arrested a few months after the explosion, but they were later released. Khatun was shot dead by an unidentified group in 2011.

Two months after the Rajpur incident, on June 23, 2008, Alam had turned himself in to police when a complaint was filed accusing him as the primary accused. The Office of the Attorney General, however, on July 14, 2008, decided against pursuing a criminal case against Alam and five others.

Responding to a writ petition filed on behalf of the victims, the Supreme Court in May 2012, four years after the incident, had ordered that the case should proceed.

Alam was elected from Rautahat constituency-2 in the first Constituent Assembly elections in 2008. However, he lost the second Constituent Assembly elections in 2013, before going on to win the 2017 legislative elections. Alam served as labour and transport minister in the Madhav Kumar Nepal-led government.

Alam is a nephew of the late Nepali Congress leader Sheikh Idrish. He had emerged as a prominent Congress leader in Rautahat after Idrish's demise. Alam, who was considered close to the late Congress leader Girija Prasad Koirala, faced allegations of ballot stuffing and rigging in every election he contested.

After Alam was arrested and sent to judicial custody, his younger son Dr Mohammad Rajik Alam joined politics. He was elected mayor of Rajpur Municipality in the 2022 local elections.