Extra-Judicial Killing
On 1 November, 2002, Daya Narayan Shrestha, 42, a teacher by profession, the permanent resident of Ramechhap district Tilpung VDC ward no 9, was arrested by the then Royal Nepal Army, a posse of 20-22, under the command of Ranadhir Rai while he was sleeping at his home with his family at around 3:30 am. Then, he was forcefully taken to Kharbari Village of the local Haledebensi, Tilpung, at a two km eastern side walking distant from his house and shot him dead on his head on the same day.
Developments
The then Royal Nepal Army reported that Mr. Shrestha was murdered as he spied against the army, and was a Maoist activist; however, there was no any evidence to back it. The family members of the victim also claimed that he was not affiliated to any political party, and was a simple and diligent teacher on his profession. Yet, there was a slow murmur by some of the villagers that Mr. Shrestha had a strong faith in the Maoist Party. Later on, it found out that Mr. Shrestha used to be a supporter of Janamorcha party but switched affiliation to NCP UML at the time. He had been arrested and released many times by the then Unified Security Force comprising of Army and Police under the accusation of spying against them. And he used to be ordered to be present at the DPO, Ramechhap repeatedly and was released on plain date.
On 1 November, 2002, it was reported that at around 3:30 in the early morning, two uniformed army men with rifles came knocking at Daya’s house asking for him, and told him to come along with them a little further as they have some business with him. While he was asking to unveil the business over there at his home and refusing to go with them, he was then forcefully taken away from his house. Then he was taken at a distant of 2 km from the house and shot dead, about an hour after being abducted.
Just because he had sympathy with communists and because he was associated with Janamorcha Party in the past, state agents used to cast a doubtful eye on Shrestha. From February 2002 security personnel ordered him to report himself to the police. He was eventually left with general date for a week, 2 weeks, 20 days and sometimes for one month. When four villagers were killed by Maoists, security personnel sent him a letter to report to them and he went to the police and after attendance they left him. One day, on the month of September in 2002, early in the morning at about 3, an armed army troop in civil dress under the command of Second Lieutenant, Ranodip Rai came to his neighborhood and held curfew in his area. Asking the neighbors about him, they came searching for him and searched his house. They then took him with them for interrogation to the headquarter, Manthali and freed him later. He never told details about the interrogation to his family.
Next time also, the same troop came and took him likewise to army camp situated in the old headquarters of Ramechhap. They let him go and ordered him to report to them every Saturday. The following two Saturdays he went to Manthali for attendance.
On 01/11/2002 1(5/7/2059), Friday, at about 3:30 in the morning, two army men in uniform with rifles came knocking at his house asking for him and was taken along with them. However, the family members came to know the murder of Daya at around 11 am on the following day.
It was found that Daya sustained shot holes on both sides of his forehead. Uttam Ghimire from Haledebensi was the witness who heard the firing at around 4 am. The following day of the killing, it was reported that the DSP of the DPO, Ramechhap called the chairperson of the Tilpung VDC and handed over the dead body for the funeral rites, and informed that Daya was killed by the Unified command, for his acts of spying against the state security agents to the Maoists.
After the murder of these five villagers in the time period of one week, the villagers with the painful heart start raising the issue to the fore. There were several requests to police from the family members to start investigations. Let alone the investigation, the victim families were further threatened not to raise this case. Then with the legal support provided by Advocacy Forum, victim family went to file FIR on 10 December 2009 but the DPO, Ramechhap refused to register it. On the same day, the team visited the District Administration Office (DAO) seeking an order for the DPO to get the FIR registered. But the CDO also refused to register the complaint. This was challenged and reason for not registering it was sought. Law prescribes that these authorities have to provide reasons in writing if they can not register the FIR.
The quest for justice to the victims was then brought to the Appellate Court, Janakpur. A writ of mandamus was filed in the Appellate Court with writ no. 06-066-04509, seeking an order for the DPO, Ramechhap to register the FIR and initiate a prompt investigation on it.
The Appellate Court on 2 November 2010 ruled against the DPO Ramechhap to promptly register the FIR and instigate effective investigation.
Finally, DPO Ramechhap registered the FIR on 7 August 2011 and told the victims that investigation would be carried out promptly.
In this incident, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) wrote a letter, ref. No. 2565, to the Prime Minister and to the Council of Minister on July 16, 2006 (2063.3.32) recommending the government to carry out an investigation into the incident, identify and take action against the responsible soldiers, and provide the families of each victim with Rs 150,000 as compensation. The victim’s families were notified of the letter, but are yet to be compensated on account of the fact that the government has yet to decide over the matter.
