NEPAL: Risk of improper investigation into the murder of an 8-year-old Dalit girl, allegedly sacrificed for good omens

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that an 8-year-old Dalit girl has been assassinated, in what could be a sacrifice for good omen on December 4, 2009 in Maryadpur, Rupandehi District, Nepal. The AHRC is concerned that the case may not receive appropriate attention from the local police who have a long record of not investigating properly caste-based crimes in Nepal. Although Nepal’s interim constitution formally outlaws caste-based discrimination, those crimes are still frequent in rural Nepal and strong actions need to be taken in this case to show a strong political will to fight against caste based discrimination.

CASE DETAILS:

According to the information the AHRC has received from the Jagaran Media Center, a Nepal-based NGO which have been fighting against caste-based discrimination for the last decade, Manisha Harijan, an 8-year-old Dalit girl, has been found dead on the morning of 4 December 2009, with her throat silted. Upon inquiry with the neighbors and the girl’s family, the JMC was informed that the victim had not come home the evening before and that her father, Raju Harijan, along with two other villagers had been looking for her and faced an hostile attitude from workers building a brick kiln. It is only the next morning that her father discovered her body.

The circumstances of the crime have led the villagers and the police officers to suspect that a local non-Dalit businessman, Birendra Jayasawal, has killed the girl as human sacrifice in his brick kiln to bring good omen. Additionally, the chimney of the kiln was found sprinkled with water and the bricks covered with blood.  The villagers and Raju Harijan consider these as evidences of human sacrifice. The day before the incident, Jayasawal had allegedly assured the father that Manisha would be home by the morning.

The police arrested Jayasawal and four other suspects and the villagers demonstrated in front of the Area Police Office-Manjhgawa demanding punishment of the perpetrators. The police then shifted the suspects to the District Police Office (DPO) in Bhairhawa. Nevertheless, the victim’s family and the villagers assert having encountered resistance from the police who first refused to file the case and showed negligence in investigating the case.

The JMC regional office, Radio Jagaran 93.6MHz and different local organisations report to have conducted a field visit and submitted a memorandum to the Chief District Officer, Nagendra Jha, a higher authority, urging him to order proper investigations, which the CDO promised. After intense pressures on the DPO from local human rights organisations, a case was eventually filed on 9 December 2009.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Despite this, the AHRC and the JMC fears that this case may not receive proper attention from the police. The fact that the victim belongs to the Harijan sub-caste which is one of the poorest groups among the Dalits poses a challenge for the family to have adequate access to the judicial system.

Indeed, although caste-based crimes are frequent in Nepal, the authorities have often proven careless in addressing them, refusing to register cases, releasing culprits without a trial or even pressuring the victims into withdrawing their complaints. The AHRC has already reported several of those cases: recently the police has been pressuring a Dalit woman who had been accused of witchcraft and forced to eat human excreta into withdrawing her case (UAC-153-2009) and has released the suspect of the rape and murder of an 11-year-old Dalit girl although there were strong evidences against him (UAC-150-2009).  That is why there is a strong probability that such an attitude might be an obstacle to the victim’s family’s search for justice in this case.

The above cases reveal several flaws in the Nepalese police system as a whole, which does not function properly anymore. In some cases it is only after the case receiving publicity and the authorities put under pressure, the police registered cases against the suspects, or the case investigated. Such circumstances make it even more difficult for the Dalits, one of the most isolated citizens of Nepal, to access judiciary institutions. What can be defined as a systematic refusal to receive and support the complaints of the most vulnerable citizens of Nepal will only result in encouraging anti-Dalit sentiments, discrimination and crimes toward them.

Although the caste system has been officially abolished in Nepal in 1963, it still de facto condemns the Dalits to poverty, illiteracy and caste-based discrimination. In rural areas, the rest of the society still considers that the value of a Dalit’s life as negligible. While the interim Constitution of Nepal formally prohibits discrimination against Dalits and states that the state should take comprehensive measures to address this issue, a law still has to be designed to specifically protect religious minorities and Dalits from being discriminated against and attacked.

In investigating this case properly, the Nepalese police has a chance to show that it can treat all citizens’ complaints equally, which would be an important step forward for the accountability of the police system, and a strong signal condemning anti-Dalit discriminations.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write letters to the authorities listed below, urging them to immediately make sure that the murder of Manisha Harijan will be properly investigated. Please urge for the protection of the victim’s family. Please also join us in calling for the drafting of a law to protect religious minorities or Dalits from discrimination in Nepal.

The AHRC is also writing a separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, and on violence against women, its causes and consequences calling for intervention in this case.

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER