Extra-Judicial Killing
Around 3 a.m., October 24, 2002 (2059.7.7), Netra Bahadur Karki, aged 49, by profession a Village Health Worker, a resident of Deurali VDC-8, Ramechhap District, was held in control forcefully from his own house by a posse of some 10 soldiers. He was shot dead later the very day along with other three persons at Salu VDC-1, Dhungechhap, Ramechhap District. The three others were Raj Kumar K.C., Tek Bahadur Basnet and Prakash Basnet. They all were shot dead together at the same time.
Developments
On 24 October, 2002 at around 3 in the early morning, Netra Bahadur Karki was sleeping at his home with his family, someone called him from outside addressing him as ‘Brother Netra Bahadur’. When Netra and his family members came out to see, they found that there were some 10 army men, some in plainclothes, some wearing white-patterned dresses, and some carrying rifles. It was reported that they had positioned themselves in different points, some next to the door, some in the front yard and some on the upper side.
Then the soldiers reportedly entered the house and searched it, whereas Netra and his family members remained outside watching. They rummaged around every corner, and watched closely even the knees and elbows of the kids. They checked all the grain-storing containers and sacks by inserting sticks into them and came out with the big knife that is used to kill goats. At the time, some of the soldiers would address Netra as ‘Comrade’ and come to shake hands with him. Netra kept denying that he was a Comrade as such. Then they took netra away with them tying his hands behind the back. His wife was told that Netra would return soon as they had to interrogate him for some cause.
Later at the following noon, the family members learnt of Netra’s murder while they were listening to the news of Radio Nepal. The news stated that four terrorists were killed in cross-fire that took place at Salu Deurali VDC of Ramechhap. As it became clear later, Netra and other three persons were forced to stand on a line and shot dead. Villagers were forced to bury the dead bodies after four days of the incident when the administration issued an order to remove dead bodies from the place of incident.
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.
