NEPAL: A man is found dead in suspicious circumstances and as the police refuse to investigate a cover-up is suspected

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a 30 year-old man was found dead in a paddy field in Rupandehi district with marks of beatings all over his body and strong evidence of foul play. However, the police refused to register the case and forced the family to cremate their son’s body immediately instead of burying it as per the custom, therefore preventing a post mortem. The police then tried to force the victim’s family to sign a piece of paper without letting them read the contents. Shopkeepers later reported having seen the victim being arrested by the police the day before his death. When local people visited the police station to ask for the investigation of the death, their request was answered with a police charge, rubber bullets and tear gas, resulting in nine persons being injured.

CASE NARRATIVE:

According to the information we have received, Ram Sewak Dhobi, was found dead at 5.40 am on August 13, 2013 in a paddy field 500 meter away from the Area Police Office, Marchbar, Rupandehi district by fellow villagers. His parents and his two brothers were informed by three villagers that his body had been found. When they arrived there, three policemen were already present, namely Assistant Sub Inspector Akhil Rana Magar, Constable Rakesh Yadav and another police officer as yet unidentified.

When his parents arrived at the scene, they found that Ram Sewak’s dead body partially submerged in the water. His face was covered with a plastic bag and his body bore obvious signs of mistreatment and beatings. His chest was covered with blue marks, his throat and neck were swollen and also covered with blue marks, both of his armpits were covered with marks which had turned black. There was dried blood which had oozed from his mouth, his ears, his nose and his eyes. His right eye was damaged. In addition, his parents identified marks of ropes on his wrists and legs and are of the opinion that the marks that covered his body looked typical of marks lefts by boot and sticks.

Despite the obvious evidence of foul play the police did not deem it necessary to collect evidence from the scene and did not take any record of the incident. Neither did they prepare the body for post-mortem. On the contrary, they forced the parents to cremate their son’s body as soon as possible. It should be noted that in that community, non-married deceased are not cremated but buried, which made the police demand highly unusual. When the parents objected to this and demanded to bury their son, the police told them the body would only be handed over to them if they promised to cremate him. They provided the family with an axe to cut wood and cremate the body. At 2 pm the day the body was discovered, the family cremated their son at Dui Muhana Ghat. The family told the human rights defenders that talked to them that they were not aware of what a post mortem was and that it was required to find out the cause of death. They had not been informed about it by the police.

Later that evening, two policemen reportedly visited the parents’ home and asked them to sign a paper they did not let them read. As the parents refused to sign, they were threatened that there would be bad consequences if they did not.

A few days after the Ram Sewak’s was found dead the family came to know that in the afternoon of August 12, 2013, he was drinking alcohol in a liquor shop belonging to the wife of one of the policemen from the APO and was met there by some policemen. After a small discussion between the policemen and Ram Sewak, they arrested him and it is not known what happened to him afterwards.

The same evening, the police forcefully shut down the local market at 6 pm instead of letting it open until 9 pm as usual.

Local journalists and activists learnt about the incident a few days later. On August 25, there was a peaceful demonstration by the local people to demand an independent investigation into the case at the APO. However, police charged those present with lathis (sticks) and fired rubber bullets and tear gas at them. 9 persons were injured in the process.

Details of the injured as recorded by the activists are as follow:
1. Ms. Geeta Dhobi, 21, a resident of Rupandehi district, Asuraina VDC, Ward No. 6, Parshawa Tole.
Injuries: Stitches on the head due to serious injury, blue marks on both arms and thighs.
2. Ms. Reeta Dhobi, 35, a resident of Rupandehi district, Asuraina VDC, Ward No. 6, Parshawa Tole.
Injuries: Blue marks on the shoulders, arms and thighs.
3. Mr. Chanarjiv Dhobi, 65, a resident of Rupandehi district, Asuraina VDC, Ward No. 6,Parshawa Tole,
Injury: Blue marks of stick on the shoulders.
4. Ms. Aarati Maurya, 50, a resident of Rupandehi district, Asuraina VDC, Ward No. 6, Parshawa Tole.
Injury: Blue marks of stick on shoulders and thighs.
5. Mr. Birendra Kewat, 21, a resident of Rupandehi district, Asuraina VDC, Ward No. 6, Parshawa Tole.
Injury: Stitches on the head due to a serious injury, wound on the elbow of the right hand, blue marks on the shoulder
6. Mr. Akali Murab, 65, a resident of Rupandehi district, Asuraina VDC, Ward No. 6, Parshawa Tole.
Injury: Stitches on the head due to a serious injury and blue marks on the shoulder.
7. Ms. Ram Bilash Kewat, 45, a resident of Rupandehi district, Asuraina VDC, Ward No. 6, Parshawa Tole.
Injury: Injured due to rubber bullet in the right hand.
8. Mr. Munib Kewat, 38, a resident of Rupandehi district, Asuraina VDC, Ward No. 6, ParshawaTole.
Injury: Blue marks of the stick on the right elbow.
9. Mr. Rangi Lal Kewat, 19, a resident of Rupandehi district, Asuraina VDC, Ward No. 6, Parshawa Tole.
Injury: Stitches on the head due to serious injury, blue marks on the shoulder.

According to the police, after being informed that some villagers had found the dead body, a team visited the incident place and tried to bring the body for post mortem, but the family reportedly refused to allow it and insisted on cremating the body.

10 persons were detained in the APO on August 13 but the police claim that no one was arrested and brought on that day.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The AHRC is concerned that in spite of strong evidence of manslaughter the police have not taken any steps to investigate the case although they are legally obliged to do so. Further, the eyewitnesses’ reports that the victim had been arrested a few hours before he was found dead and the police demand that his body be cremated in spite of the local customs are disturbing and point to a police involvement in the death. 
Police torture remains alarmingly high in Nepal and few safeguards have been developed to prevent it. According to a report by Advocacy Forum NEPAL: Is the Government Unable or Unwilling to Prevent and Investigate Torture? 22.3% of the 3,773 detainees they had interviewed in 2012 had reported torture or ill-treatment at the hands of the police. Further, the police and other security forces have a track record of covering-up human rights violations and abuses of power by tampering with evidences or threatening the victims and witnesses in circumstances quite similar to this case. For further information please see UAU-034-2010 on the lack of independent investigation into the custodial death of a teenage boy in Rupendehi district in 2010. An investigation team, composed exclusively of policemen under the leadership of a government official, overlooked medical evidence of foul play and showed negligence in the interview of the protagonists. Three years on, the victim’s family is still waiting for justice. In a similar pattern, in 2010, in Kathmandu, to cover-up the torture to death of a man in their custody, the police arrested the man who had filed the original complaint which had the victim arrested. See UAC-082-2010 for more details.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please join us in asking for a proper investigation into the circumstances of Ram Sewak’s death by writing to the authorities listed below.

Please note that the AHRC is writing a separate letter to the Special Rapporteurs on Torture and extrajudicial killings asking for their intervention in this case.

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