NEPAL: Custodial death of a Dalit from police torture in Kathmandu

Dear friends, 

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from the Jagaran Media Center (JMC) in Nepal regarding the custodial torture and death of Mr. Sanu Sunar, aged 46 years, a person from Godavari, Lalitpur district. At the time of death Sunar was temporarily living in Kalanki, Nepal. The police officers from Kalimati Police Station arrested Sunar on 23 May 2010 and tortured him at the police station. It is reported that officers later took Sunar to the Bir Hospital, where he was declared dead by the evening of 25 May. 

CASE NARRATIVE: 

According to the information we have received from the JMC, on 23 May 2010, the police arrested Sunar from Kalimati Chowk, following a complaint filed by Mr. Bishnu Kapri, a shopkeeper from Balaju Kathmandu. Bishnu alleged that Sunar robbed NRs. 25,000 from him. Earlier that day, Sunar had won NRs 25,000 playing cards, a fact confirmed by his wife, Gita Sunar. The police arrested Sunar when he was returning home in a taxi. 

The police also arrested the taxi driver and a person named Mr. Krishna Biswakarma who was travelling with Sunar. The police took the three men to Kalimati Police Station. The police later released the driver and Krishna but started interrogating Sunar. 

Following his arrest, the police called Gita and asked her to come to the police station. She reached the Kalimati Police Station at about 1pm and saw that three police officers were kicking and punching her husband while accusing him of theft by calling Sunar a ‘robber’. The police reportedly abused Gita using vulgar words when she asked them to stop beating her husband and threatened to torture her. Inspector Mr. Bhola Rawal is the officer in-charge of Kalimati Police Station, but his involvement in the incident is unknown. 

The police allowed Gita to talk to her husband for a short time and she went back to the police station the same day to check on her husband. This time, the police not only misbehaved with her but also snatched Gita’s mobile telephone from her. 

At around midnight on the same day, the police officers informed Gita that they had taken her husband to Bir hospital in Kathmandu. When she reached the hospital, she found her husband in a serious condition. “I fed snacks to my husband in the daytime and at night I found him in hospital bed in a critical condition barely breathing”, she said. 

According to a report prepared by the Advocacy Forum, a human rights organisation based in Kathmandu, soon after Gita had arrived at the hospital, her husband started vomiting blood. She reports having witnessed marks of torture on her husband’s hands, legs, face and other parts of body. 

Sunar was taken to Kathmandu Model Hospital at 1am, on 24 May, for a CT scan. The CT scan report mentioned serious brain hemorrhages which required urgent surgery. A surgery was conducted on Sunar at about 7.30am on the same day. In the evening of 25 May, Sunar was declared dead by the doctors at the Bir hospital. According to the doctors, the cause of the death was head injuries sustained by Sunar. 

[You can see the pictures (Caution-Graphic Picture!): Sunar’s ear, blue marks on Sunar’s dead body, Sunar’s head injuries) 

When the case was reported to the public through various sources, the Chairperson of the National Dalit Commission, Mr. Bijul Kumar Bishwokarma; Constituent Assembly Member and JMC advisor Mr. Binod Pahadi; Dalit leader Mr. Padam Sundas and Maoists Newa State Committee Member Birat went to the Bir hospital. The team accused the police that they have framed a false case against Sunar to extort money from him. 

The police officers immediately arrested the complainant, Bishnu Kapri, and charged him with the murder of Sunar. However, the victim’s family and Bishnu’s family affirm that the police have arrested Bishnu to get away with the murder and to save the officers who killed Sunar. The police is also preventing the media and human rights activists and even Bishnu’s family from meeting him in custody. 

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: 

This is the third case of custodial death caused from police torture reported from Nepal this year. Earlier this year, the AHRC reported the case of a father and a son who also were killed inside the police station from torture after having ended in police custody on accusations of theft. This case was reported from Panchthar district. 

In Nepal torture is routinely practiced as a common and acceptable means to investigate a crime in almost every police station. The police officers torture suspects to obtain confession and also for demanding bribes and other illegal gratifications. The ordinary public is afraid to speak against this practice since they have no protection if by speaking the truth they offend any police officer. 

The situation is even worse when it comes to Dalits in Nepal. The discriminatory mindset of some non-Dalit police officers exposes Dalits to the risk of arbitrary arrest than the non-Dalits. It is often reported that when a Dalit is detained in custody, with or without substantial evidence against the person, the police officers accuse the person as a criminal even without any investigation. In other words, due to the caste based discrimination, police officers often view Dalits in custody as criminals, a feature the police seldom use against non-Dalits. This is because many police officers and members of the upper caste consider a Dalit’s life less valuable. 

In our previous urgent appeals we have regularly exposed the obstacles for torture victims in seeking justice. Please see UAU-015-2010, UAC-025-2010 and UAC-020-2010 for recent examples of the difficulties encountered by torture victims who are seeking redress in a country in which torture is still not criminalised. In parallel to this trend, the AHRC has also regularly reported that Dalits seeking redress for violations of their rights have routinely faced discrimination at all levels in the justice system, starting from the moment they seek to register a complaint. Please see UAC-153-2009 and UAC-150-2009 for more details about the harassment and discouragement Dalits have to face to find redress in this impaired criminal justice system. 

At the intersection of those two chains of obstacles and malfunctioning of the justice system, the impunity of police officers who practice torture on detainees is even stronger when the detainees happen to be Dalit, therefore leaving Dalits extremely vulnerable to police abuses and torture since those who commit those violations are certain to be unpunished. 

SUGGESTED ACTION: 

Please send letters to the authorities named below demanding an investigation in the case. The police officers responsible for Sunar’s death must be punished. The government must also initiate steps to change the caste prejudiced mindset of the law enforcement officers, without which caste based discrimination will continue unabated in Nepal. 

The AHRC is writing separate letters to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, and the Special representative of the High Commissioner for Human Rights stationed in Kathmandu seeking an intervention in the case. 

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