PM seeks India's help for legal reprieve for top Nepal Maoists

From Shirish B Pradhan
Kathmandu, Sept 13 (PTI) New Nepal Prime Minister Baburam
Bhattarai Tuesday asked India to help in getting legal
reprieve for 11 top Nepalese Maoist leaders who have been
convicted by a Bihar court for anti-India activities.
This was conveyed by Bhattarai during a meeting with
Indian Ambassador Jayant Prasad.
"The prime minister has asked Ambassador Prasad to help
in resolving the issue through diplomatic channels," the Prime
Minister's Press Advisor Ram Rijhan Yadav told PTI.
Prasad told Bhattarai that these were legal matters which
needed to be looked into, Yadav said.
Eleven Maoist leaders, including two politburo members
Lokendra Bista and Kul Bahadur Khatri and six lawmakers were
those arrested in Patna on May 2, 2004 for alleged involvement
in anti-India activities and jailed in Beur Jail for
over two years. They were later released on bail.
They were tried in absentia and convicted by a Bihar
court.
Agitated Maoist leaders Monday raised the issue in
parliament, saying the case has become irrelevant in the new
political context where they have joined mainstream politics
after the end of insurgency in 2006.
Many of the top Maoists leaders took advantage of the
porous border between India and Nepal and stayed in different
Indian cities during the decade-long insurgency to topple the
monarchy.
The Maoists joined mainstream politics after the a peace
accord with the interim government led by the then Prime
Minister G P Koirala.
The present government led by Bhattarai is the second
coalition headed by the Maoists, who emerged as the single
largest party following the 2008 Constituent Assembly polls.
JNU-educated Bhattarai is likely to visit India later
this month after attending the UN General Assembly session in
New York.