Extra-Judicial Killing
On the early morning of October 24, 2002 (2059.7.7), at around 3, Prakash Basnet, aged 25, a farmer, a resident of Deurali VDC-1, Ramechhap District was arrested and taken away by a posse of some 40 or 50 soldiers. He was shot dead by the army along with three other villagers later in the noon. Villagers buried the dead body after four days of the incident when the administration issued an order to remove dead bodies from the place of incident.
Developments
It was reported that one of his neighbors, Dhruba Bahadur Basnet was in the army. He sent a message to Prakash to report to the army in Manthali on suspicion of being a Maoist. Prakash went there on October 23, 2002 (2059.7.6) and returned home in the evening. At around 3 a.m., while he was sleeping at his home with his family, on October 24, 2002 (2059.7.7), some soldiers shouted out from outside ordering him to open the door. At the time they had surrounded even the shed. When his wife opened the door, the army men stormed into the house and caught Prakash by the neck stating that he finally fell into their grip. Prakash then was forced to go along with them with his hands tied back. Though his mother cried not to take him away, the army men assured her to return her son after getting interrogated.
The family members waited long for him to return. On October 24, 2002 (2059.7.7), at around 4 or 5, the families of Prakash received the news of his killing. He, along with three other people, had been killed at Salu VDC-1, Dhungechhap, Ramechhap District.
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.
