NEPAL: Torture victims face eviction and harassment

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the case of Ang Dorje and Jangbu Sherpa who were beaten and illegally arrested by police officers from Metropolitan Police Circle, Maharjgunj, Kathmandu after they refused to pay a bribe on 9 February 2011. They are now facing continuous harassment (For further details, please see our previous appeals: AHRC-UAU-012-2011; AHRC-UAC-034-2011). The victims are now facing eviction from their home and shops, supposedly following pressure from the police in retaliation for having sought assistance with human rights organizations. Although the victims have tried different avenues to file a complaint in their case, no one has accepted their First Information Report. 

UPDATED INFORMATION: 

According to the updated information we have received from the Center for Victims of Torture (CVICT), Ang Dorje Sherpa and Jangbu Sherpa are being forced out of their house following pressure from the police who tortured them.

On 28 February, the two victims went back to the Metropolitan Police Circle, Maharajgunj, to ask for the Rs. 25,070 which had been looted from their home by the team of policemen belonging to that police station. There, an Assistant Sub Inspector of Police, whose name is unknown, rejected their request and reportedly threatened that as they were trying to damage the reputation of police officers, the police would harass them until they drop the case. He further allegedly threatened that the police would force them out of their house in retaliation.

We are informed that the owner of the couple’s house told the victims to move out of their house and shop. There are strong assumptions that the police pressured the house owner to evict the couple in retaliation. The house owner also filed a petition for expulsion in the Metropolitan Police Range, Maharajgunj. Following the house owner’s petition, the police reportedly called the victims to the police station and ordered them to leave their house or they would be forced out and their belongings thrown on the road.

The police called them again on 16 March, pressurizing them to relocate without delay. When the victims told the police that the law contains provision according to which the landlord should give his tenants 35 days notice to ask them to leave his premises, the police reportedly replied that they could only give him a 20-day delay and had him sign a document in which he committed to leave his landlord’s premises within that period.

In our latest update of the case, we denounced that both police officers from Metropolitan Police Circle, Maharajgunj and from the Metropolitan Police Range, Hanuman Dhoka had refused to file a First Information Report (FIR) brought by the victims. According to our latest information, a petition was sent to the Police Headquarters who forwarded it to the office of the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Office. Staff from the latter visited the victims on 4 March but was reportedly negligent in compiling the victims’ statements. So far, more than one month after the incident of torture, no FIR has been filed so far in the allegations of extortion, torture, illegal arrest and theft.

According to the information we have received, the victims are now extremely worried about their security. Ang Dorje Sherpa had suffered from an anxiety disorder and needed medical assistance for years following another torture incident of which he was victim in 2007. The doctors are now concerned that his re-torture and continuous harassment by the police would make his previous condition return.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: 

In our previous urgent appeal, “Police ask for bribes and beat a couple in Kathmandu” we first reported the torture of this couple of shop owners in Kathmandu Valley on 9 February 2011 after they had refused to pay a bribe that policemen from Metropolitan Police Circle, Maharjgunj, Kathmandu under the command of Inspector Om Prakash Khanal were trying to extort from them. After the torture, they were illegally arrested and brought to the police station without being informed of the grounds for such arrest and kept there until the night. The police also reportedly looted Rs. 25,070 from the couple’s house.

We further reported that the perpetrator, Inspector Om Prakash Khanal, had openly admitted to Deputy Superintendent of Police Thapa, his Deputy Superintendent of police in the police station, that the couple was tortured upon his orders. At that time, instead of condemning this abuse by a lower-ranking officer, the DSP mocked the couple saying “you filed case against the police in a torture incident in 2007, but you could not do anything and no police lost their jobs”, in reference to a previous case of torture of which Ang Dorje Sherpa was victim.

In our update “Police refuse to file a case of torture, protect the perpetrators“, we expressed our concern that in spite of our previous urgent appeal, both the Metropolitan Police Circle, Maharajgunj and the Metropolitan Police Range, Hanuman Dhoka, Kathmandu, refused the FIR presented by the victims. The DSP Deepak Thapa of MPC Maharajgunj openly admitted that he was refusing to file the FIR to protect his subordinates, while Superintendent of Police Pushkar Karki of MPR Hanuman Dhoka blamed the victims of having fabricating the incident to discredit the police and gave the excuse that he had to speak with the lawyer which had written the FIR before registering the case.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: 

This case is one more illustration of the complicit attitude of the police toward those of its members who have been involved in acts of torture. Refusing to file FIRs in cases involving other police officers remains a common practice in Nepal and results in an effective denial of justice. Even in cases where the FIR is actually registered, the victim has no guarantee whatsoever that it will be thoroughly investigated. Indeed, there is still not any independent body in charge of investigating cases of torture and allegations of torture are in most cases investigated by policemen, sometimes even belonging to the same police station as the perpetrators, creating a direct conflict of interest in the outcomes of the inquiry.

Because of the absence of any mechanism to protect the witnesses and victims of torture, seeking legal redress takes a hard toll on victims of torture, not only psychologically but also economically. This case highlights how the perpetrators of torture can impose an additional economic burden on the victims by chasing them from their house and shop, and depriving them of their income source. The case of Hom Bahadur Bagale, a former policemen torture victim who lost his job and right to pension following his complaint of torture is another illustration of how economic measures can become a tool of pressure in the hands of the police to prevent the victims from complaining about torture. In 2005, the Committee against Torture had already recommended to Nepal to “consider adopting legislative and administrative measures for witness protection, ensuring that all persons who report acts of torture or ill-treatment are adequately protected”. Nepal has so far failed to adopt such measures thereby paving way for further victimization of victims of torture reporting the violations.

SUGGESTED ACTION: 
Please join us in writing to the authorities listed below to ask for the accountability of those allegations of police torture and harassment, which includes filling the FIR and having the complaint adequately investigated by an independent body.

Please be informed that the AHRC will write a separate letter to the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and to the Field Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Kathmandu, calling for their intervention in the case.

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