–By telegraphnepal reporter

Kathmandu, February 27, 2022: In a dramatic manner, two physically impaired Nepal’s senior citizens who had spent most of their troubled time as servants (domestic helpers) now have become millionaires after winning a legal battle in a court of law.

The tryst of destiny.

Shri Gopal Prasad Mainali (76) and Bal Krishna Mainali (74) became millionaires the next moment upon winning a legal battle from the Kavrepalanchwok District Court.

The Court did justice to the two forlorn “brothers”.

The so far helpless Mainali brothers are physically impaired as they could not speak since their childhood.

The luck as such too have had not favored these two Mainali brothers prior to the announcement of the Court orders which, thank god, went in their favor after a long drawn Court battle.

Moreover, while one of the brother Gopal Prasad lost one of his eyes then the second one Bal Krishna too had lost his left hand fingers.

The worst the two brothers may have had suffered in the past which can be guessed easily.

This case is an example of how the legal battle is difficult in a poor country like Nepal and how it is difficult for a lawyer to represent his or her poor and helpless client(s).

Isn’t it a classic case of our legal system?

As the story goes that their elder brother Hari Prasad Mainali went to Jhapa District by selling entire assets of the family four decades ago but Gopal Prasad and Bal Krishna were left in the deep blue ocean and their whereabouts were not disclosed for many years or even say for decades and decades.

A tear-jerking story that it is.

When a veteran lawyer Ms. Pratibha Uprety per chance found the two “brothers” in a bad and disturbed state of health-conditions so purely on “humanitarian grounds” she duly lodged a case and fought the case on behalf of the two cheated and forgotten brothers.

Thanks after the Court orders, the sons of Hari Prasad took the physically disabled persons under their care.

The legal battle at the Kavrepalanchwok District Court stretched to some four years, it is learnt.

Finally, the sitting Court’s judge Mohan Raj Bhattarai settled the case for good on February 22, 2022, giving the verdict that the physically disabled Mainali brothers are entitled to receive lands worth millions and that too situated at Birtamod, Jhapa district.

The land thus which came under the ownership of the missing “Mainali brothers” were in the possession of the “sons” of Hari Prasad who have had sold the property in Kavre decades ago before migrating to Jhapa district.

Those who had argued in the district Court on behalf of the two impaired Mainali bothers were recognized lawyers like Ananta Raj Luitel, Ms. Pratibha Uprety, Sujan Nepal and Kedar Luitel.

The lawyers on behalf of the two Mainali bothers sought punishment to the opponents that is the family men of Hari Prasad.

Understandably, it was a very difficult and a complicated case but yet the “experienced” lawyers handled the court proceedings in an effective and forceful manner as the opponents had warned them to physically attack if they arranged to provide citizenship certificates to Mainali brothers from the government offices and also warned them to assassinate in the court of law after when the lawyers lodged the case in the Kavrepalanchwok District Court four years ago.

The incoming threats must have frightened the lawyers fighting the case on behalf of the two “brothers”.

But the brave lawyers remained undeterred.

They fought for justice and finally won the legal battle.

The hair-raising story came to the surface four years ago when advocate Ms. Uprety had rescued the physically disabled Mainali brothers from at least two hundred kilometers far from Kathmandu valley, finding their whereabouts four decades later.

She went alone and found them working in Sarlahi and Bara Districts as “domestic” servants.

In fact, the family members were not sure whether they were still alive or not because they were not in contact with the family members and relatives for such a long time rather decades and decades.

How the fact of the story unfolded is unbelievable?

Advocate Uprety went on searching the physically disabled persons with the inkling given by an astrologer who claimed that the physically disabled persons might have still been living somewhere and guessed that they might have been living in the Eastern Terai area.

This is more than surprising story in itself.

Advocate Uprety went on missing for a few days in order to search the disabled persons and luckily she found Gopal Prasad in a house owned by a Neupane in Harioun village of Sarlahi and Balkrishna in a house of Rayamajhi in Nijgadh, Bara District.

 

They used to live in the respective houses by helping their house owners and they were treated as their family members for many years.

Advocate Uprety who is niece of the missing ones in fact rescued the physically disabled Mainali brothers and brought them to Kathmandu safely.

She first went to Kavrepalanchwok District Administration Office to provide them their citizenship certificates but faced various “bureaucratic” difficulties citing the reason that the physically disabled might have been brought just to pocket disabled allowance(s) given by the government citing falsified facts.

But the Office held an official inquiry and found that Mainali brothers are really victimized by their family members and provided them with their citizenship certificates which was long overdue.

Fortunately, they have begun to receive the physically disabled and senior citizens’ allowances being provided by the government.

Once they obtained the citizenship certificates, advocate Uprety then filed the property case in the Kavrepalanchwok District Court on November 18, 2018.

But the opponents tried to mislead the court, tried to mislead the plaintiff and also tried to complicate the entire story as the opponent approached the High Court Patan to scrap the guardianship of the case but when they failed, they abducted the physically disabled and took them under their control.

What a horror?

In a twist of the case, advocate duo Luitel and Uprety approached the Supreme Court with two separate writ petitions and received a stay order that again gave the right track to the case.

“The case would have gone in a different direction if we did not receive the stay order from the Supreme Court,” Uprety told telegraphnepal.com.

She also shared some glimpses of the case and the inside of the story how it was difficult to handle such cases while supporting helpless and poor people.

Even though she never gave up. She was in a way in a determined state. 

“We had a team of senior lawyers such as Ananta Raj Luitel, Bikash Bhattarai and Vishal Kumar Upadhyaya and we changed our strategies one after another when the opponent party created difficulties”, says Ms. Uprety.

The opponent tried to attack time and again to harass the plaintiff.

“The opponents initially tried to influence us by giving us lucrative financial charms but when we refused, they changed their approaches and thought of even derailing the case and also threatened to kill us but we were remained undeterred”, told the lawyers to the news portal of the telegraph.

“Ultimately, they hijacked the physically disabled persons just to be legal inheritance of their property,” Uprety said, adding, “When we became clear that they were not honest, we too changed our strategies and went to the Supreme Court and luckily we were now able to ensure the fundamental rights of the helpless persons.”

Advocate Uprety was caught with stunning experiences while dealing with this case.

“When I met them, they did not know me despite being their niece,” she said adding, “I tried to communicate with them with the mark of my mother’s finger and they ultimately identified me but they were still not ready to go with me. It was obvious for them if we think from their side.

Why did I go there decades later, what was my motive and why should they bear such unexpected things but later, they were convinced to go with me when their house owners convinced them to fight for their rights according to my advice?”

Ms. Uprety had so many surprising experiences in relation to this thrilling case.

“The opponents tried to physically attack us, if we arranged for providing them citizenships,” advocate Uprety said, adding, “but I am so happy that I was able to ensure their rights.

When they received their citizenship certificates with their photos, they became extremely happy.

They could not speak and thanked me but they hugged me expressing how happy they were.”

The story is very exciting.

The whereabouts of physically disabled Mainali brothers were not clear for four decades when their elder brother Hari Prasad Mainali sold their entire assets in Kavrepalanchwok district and shifted to Birtamod, Jhapa in 1976/77.

But they were left just because they were physically disabled.

Everybody was busy on their own and even their relatives also did not give due concerns to the physically disabled ones.

Miraculously, advocate Uprety rescued them on October 2018 and they celebrated their Tika along with their elder sister Hima Devi Uprety around six decades later in New Baneshwor, Kathmandu then their story got a new twist upon winning the legal battle.

Thus the thrilling, passionate and an emotional story comes to an end.

The team of the telegraphnepal salutes the team of the lawyers who kept themselves engaged in a legal battle and provided justice to the two “Mainali brothers” who got a new lease of life.

Salute lawyer Ms. Pratibha and your daring legal team. That’s all.