NEPAL: Police beat up three detainees in Kathmandu

Dear friends, 

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that police have severely beaten up three detainees in the Metropolitan Police Range in Hanumandhoka, Kathmandu. Torture is widely use by police forces in Nepal as an easy way to carry an investigation and goes unpunished because of legal loopholes and general unaccountability of the police system. This case is one more reminder of the worrying extent of police abuses in Nepal and of the imperious necessity to make the fight against torture a governmental priority.

CASE DETAILS: 

According to information we have received from Advocacy  Forum, a National-based human rights NGO, Ms. Indra Kala Gurung, 37, Mr. Chandra Bahadur Gurung, 41 and  Mr. Saraswati Gurung, 24 were arrested on February 3, 2010 on an allegation of abduction and taken to the Metropolitan Police Crime Division in Kathmandu where they were inflicted severe torture.

According to Saraswati’s testimony her sister, Indra Kala Gurung, had borrowed 500,000 Ruppees from Mr. Buddhi Bahadur Thapa to send her husband, Purna Bahadur Malla, to South Korea were he was to seek employment. Nevertheless he failed to do so and stayed in Kathmandu. When they came to know that he was living in Kathmandu, the two sisters Indra and Saraswati paid him several visits but he refused to pay the debt and beat his wife. 

In the meanwhile, Indra was under pressure from Buddhi to reimburse the money. He caught her in Besisahar Lamjung District and handed her over to the Lamjung District Police Office. She paid 50,000 Rupees and promised that she will pay off her debt within three months. Then again, Purna refused to help them and ran away.  At that point, Chandra Bahadur Gurung, a distant relative, promised to help the two sisters. He and Indra caught Purna’s brother, Gopal Malla, and brought him to Indra’s residence.
 
In the meanwhile, Indra’s husband called her and told her that he had transferred money under her name, so Indra and Chandra went to Kantipath, Kathmandu to collect it. There they were arrested by a team of policemen under the command of Inspector Bhisma Humagai, from Metropolitan Police Crime Division (MPCD), Kathmandu on an allegation of abduction.

They were brought to MPCD, Kathmandu and beaten up with rubber pipes and bottles of water. Eight to nine policemen, under the command of Inspector Bhisma Humagai then took them to Indra’s residence, because they had been told that Gopal Malla was held in hostage by members of the Young Communist League. Upon arriving at Indra’s place they realised that there were no communist cadres involved but that only Saraswati and Gopal Malla were present. They arrested Saraswati at gunpoint and seized her husband’s citizenship certificate and other documents. 

The detainees were taken to the MPCD, Kathmandu. On this first day, Indra was beaten several times on her back, her thighs, her knees and her palms with a rubber pipe in which a wire was inserted and she had to keep an uncomfortable position i.e to kneel down. Chandra Bahadur Gurung was also beaten on his sole with plastic pipes in which a wire was inserted and was punched on his back and his head. His face was swollen. Both victims reported that Inspector Bhisma Humagai beat them more than the other policemen. 

The next morning, on February 4, they were all taken to a room and Inspector Bhisma Humagai beat them again asking them to tell him who were the other abductors. Indra reported that then two policemen beat her hands with a rubber pipe several times and had her sit on her knees and maintain this position for half an hour. Her palms were swollen and the policemen ordered her to roll her palms on a stick to prevent the blood from clotting. Chandra said that the two other policemen present in the room were those who already beat him the day before. They reportedly beat him with plastic pipes on his hands and then with plastic bottles on his face. He said that he felt pain on his face and brain given to this torture. Saraswati said that she was beaten on her hands with a plastic pipe and ordered to roll them on a stick to prevent the blood from clotting.

The policemen then took them to another room and interrogated them about the abduction. They denied the charge. Then the policemen took photographs of them, measured their height and weight and took their fingerprints. They were later brought to the Bir Hospital but reported that they did not dare to talk about the torture. The hospital personnel did not ask them whether or not they were inflicted torture. The doctor prescribed some medicine but the policemen did not let them buy medicines, denying their right to receive medical treatment.

On the same day, they were brought before the Kathmandu District Court and the judge did not ask them if they had been tortured. Indra, including her relatives was remanded for five days.

Three of them were then brought back to the Metropolitan Police Range (MPR) Kathmandu and Chandra reported that as soon as he got back to the Crime Division, the policemen started to beat him again: they slapped his cheeks, beat him with plastic pipes on his hands, back and thighs.

Indra reported that on February 6, she was kept in the outside room of the Crime Division. Inspector Bhisma Humagai, Buddhi Bahadur Thapa her creditor and her brother-in-law, other inspector and many other people including an army person were present in the room as well. The inspector ordered her to stand against a wall and beat her with a rubber pipe on her thighs and on her hands several times. He scolded her for not paying her debt. The torture session lasted for about half an hour.
 
Indra, Chandra and Sarawati were remanded for five days on February 8, 2010 and for seven more days on February 15, 2010. The three fear that they might be inflicted more torture again. Indra reported that she suffers from suffocation and trauma, nightmares, sleepless nights and is under a lot of mental tension. She is not in contact with her family members and her relatives. Chandra complained of pain on his temples, soles and problems of sitting and standing. He could not contact his relatives for three days after his arrest.

The three victims are now visited daily by the Advocacy Forum and had also received a visit of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal. For the time being, torture is not inflicted on any of the three victims anymore. A physical and medical check-up application has been filed on their behalf on February 25, 2010. 

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: 

The widespread use of torture in Nepal has been brought to light when, in 2006, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture reported that it was ‘conducted there on a systematic basis’. Despite of this enormous international attention and governmental pledge to eradicate this practice, the AHRC has been reporting regularly about cases of severe torture inflicted of prisoners by police forces, in total impunity. Unfortunate coincidence, this week, the AHRC is also reporting about a young man who was arbitrarily arrested and tortured in the same police station. (For additional information please see AHRC-UAC-018-2010). Those two contemporary cases, in the same police station, give a worrying insight about the widespread of police abuse in Nepal. 

Although Nepal is a state party to the UN Convention against torture, there is currently no law in Nepal making it a crime and the policemen responsible for such abuses are scarcely held accountable for them. In its 2009 follow-up report, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture expressed ‘concern regarding reports that suggest that torture allegations continue to frequently not be properly investigated and that perpetrators are not prosecuted or punished.’ All of this allows torture to perpetuate. 

This case also alarmingly shows that the recommendations made by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture in the report of his visit to Nepal in September 2005 and reasserted in 2009 in their follow-up are not fully taken into account by the different bodies which have a part to play in the eradication of torture. For instance, the UN Special Rapporteur had recommended that ‘Judges and prosecutors routinely ask persons brought from police custody how they have been treated and, even in the absence of a formal complaint from the defendant, order an independent medical examination’. According to our information, this has not been the case here. Moreover, it has been reported that judges do not always test the voluntary nature of a confession, which may allow confessions extracted under torture to be held against an accused.

The fact that the detainees were refused the medical treatment which had been prescribed during the medical check-up is also a worrying pattern of police practices and does not respect the principle 24 of the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment, adopted by the UN General Assembly Resolution 43-173 which states that ‘medical care and treatment shall be provided whenever necessary’ to detained persons’. 

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write letters to the concerned authorities requesting a thorough investigation into the allegations of torture inflicted to Indra Kala Gurung, Chandra Bahadur Gurung and Saraswati Gurung. Please ask for the punishment of the perpetrators and adequate compensation for the victims. 

Please be informed that the AHRC is writing separate letters to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights-Nepal Representative, calling for intervention in this case.

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