Extra-Judicial Killing
On the early morning of October 24, 2002 (2059.7.7), at around 3, Tek Bahadur Basnet, aged 30, a farmer, a resident of Deurali VDC-1, Ramechhap District was arrested and taken away by a group of some 6 or 7 soldiers. He was shot dead by the army along with three other villagers later in the noon.
Developments
It was reported that Tek Bahadur was observing mourning during the time of the incident. On October 23, 2002 (2059.7.6), he along with journalist Raj Kumar KC had gone to Manthali citing summons from the army. When he returned home, he told family members that his neighbor Dhan Bahadur Basnet (who was in the army) had asked him not to go away from the house henceforth. And having faith upon the soldier neighbor, he told his family members that he would remain in the house. He felt it as a relief to have a neighbor in the army and to be affiliated to no party. At around 3 am, on October 24, 2002 (2059.7.7), security personnel came out of the blue and kicked at the door of his house asking to open it. His wife opened the door and saw some 7 or 8 soldiers carrying guns and wearing white-patterned uniform. Two of them searched the house whereas other two caught and brought Tek Bahadur out. Then he was enforced to go with them to Manthali for some interrogation. Meanwhile, while his wife tried to stop them saying there was no reason for taking him because he had been to Manthali just the day before, then they replied angrily that they were taking him just for investigation and that he would be released soon.
The families of Tek Bahadur were desperately waiting his return. However, they came to know that Tek Bahadur together with his three villagers was killed by the army men at Salu VDC-1, Dhungechhap, Ramechhap District.
After four days of the incident, villagers, including Babu Ram Karki, Prem Bahadur Karki, Khem Raj Rokka and others were forced to bury the dead bodies 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.
