RAUTAHAT: Former Minister and lawmaker of the Nepali Congress Mohammad Aftab Alam,  who is facing murder charges, has been remanded to eight days in judicial custody.

A single bench of Judge of District Court, Rautahat, Keshav Kumar Pandey decided to remand in custody for eight more days for further investigation. This is his third remand.

Police had arrested Alam on October 13 from his own residence in connection with a bomb blast and subsequent murder of as many as 23 people in Rautahat in 2008.

On April 9, 2008, some people sustained injuries when explosives they were making, apparently at the behest of Alam, exploded accidentally. The explosives were being made targeting the imminent Constituent Assembly elections, according to police.

He, according to the investigation, was involved in burning 23 people alive in a brick kiln to allegedly destroy the evidence.