Ankit Adhikari

Japanese prosecutors, who had been pursuing a murder and rape case against Govinda Prasad Mainali, withdrew their case on Monday. They said the Nepali was innocent.

“Based on available evidence, the possibility of another person being the culprit cannot be ruled out,” the prosecutors said.

Forty-five-year old Mainali, who served 15 years in a jail in Japan after being convicted in 1997 of rape and murder, was acquitted by the Tokyo High Court on June 7 this year, following a retrial.

Mainali, who went to Japan to work in a restaurant, was first arrested in 2000 on charges of overstaying. Two years later, Japanese authorities pressed him with charges of rape and murder that had taken place near Mainali’s residence in 1997.

A final October 2003 verdict handed Mainali a life sentence. However, the court verdict went awry after a DNA test showed that Mainali’s semen did not match samples collected from the dead woman’s body. Mainali then appealed for a retrial in 2005.

However, even after the Tokyo High Court gave a clean chit to Mainali this year, prosecutors had been demanding that he be sent behind bars once again, claiming that all charges were genuine.

Journalist Bishnu Nisthuri, former President of the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) and a relative of Mainali’s, said the prosecutors’ decision to take back the case has now made it certain that the court’s final verdict will be on Mainali’s side. The Tokyo High Court is slated to give a final verdict on November 7.

After his acquittal, Mainali arrived in Nepal on June 16. Addressing a press conference here, he had then shared his feelings of isolation and despondence in a foreign country for a crime he did not commit.

Despite terrible pressure from the authorities, Mainali never confessed to the crimes. Instead, he kept on fighting, calling on his friends outside to rescue him as soon as possible.

Published on: 30 October 2012 | The Kathmandu Post