NEPAL: Two alleged brutal torture cases committed by Banke district police

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from its local partner, the Advocacy Forum, regarding two alleged brutal torture cases taken place in Banke district in May 2007. In one case, 8 young persons, including 6 minors, were arbitrarily arrested on 4 May 2007 and further brutally tortured by the officers of the Banke district police office. In another case, one man arrested with the charge of drug smuggling on 6 May 2007 was severely tortured by the officers of the Jamunaha Police Post, Nepalgunj, Banke district. In both cases, the victims’ right to receive medical check-up was denied during their prolong detention. We believe that the denial of the medical check-up and the prolong detention of the victims intend to destroy the physical evidence of torture of the victims. No serious action has yet been taken by the local authorities to investigate the alleged two torture cases and arrest the perpetrators.   

CASE DETAILS:

Eight young persons, 6 minors and 2 adults, were arrested by some 7-8 armed police personnel of District Police Office (DPO), Banke district from Piprahawa Chowk, Ganapur Village Development Committee (VDC), Banke district, Nepal at around 9:30pm on 4 May 2007. They are Madan Chaudhari (17), Surya Chaudhary (18), Aman Chaudhary (15), Shyam Lal Chaudhary (17), Deshu Lal Chaudhary (17), Mewa La Chaudhary (17), Jeevan Chaudhary (18), Maya Ram Chaudhary (18). It should be noted that a person below the age of 16 is the minor according to the Nepali domestic law, while the international law defines the minor as a person aged below 18. The AHRC followed the international definition of the minor in this case.

All the victims were arrested with charges of robbery, while waiting for the public vehicle for returning home after they had attended Pooja [a religious ceremony] at their friend’s home at Kohalpur VDC, Banke district.

According to the victims, patrolling security personnel in two police vans stopped at Piprahawa Chowk, Ganapur VDC at about 9:30pm, while they were waiting for the public vehicles. Some 7-8 police personnel then got off the vans and ordered the 8 victims to stand beside the road. The policemen then randomly accused that the victims were trying to steal something in the area. Although they explained that they were returning home after attending the religious ceremony at their friend’s home, the police did not listen to them.

After that, the armed policemen began to beat all the victims. They indiscriminately assaulted the victims with bamboo stick, butt of the guns and torches and also kicked them with their police boots for about one hour and pressured them to accept the baseless allegation against them. One victim Mewalal Chaudhary said, “They beat us on the back, things, head and some other parts of body with a bamboo stick, boots, torch, and butt of the guns for about an hour. They even verbally abused all of us when we denied the allegation. After beating all of us around an hour, they tied our hands on the back with our own shirt and handkerchief and then loaded in to the police van.” 

All the victims were then taken to the Bheri Zonal Hospital in Nepalgunj, Banke district for the medical check-up. However, the victims complain that they have not received any medical attention. At about 1:00am on the following day, the victims were then taken to the DPO, Banke district.

As soon as they were brought to the DPO, Banke district, some policemen proceeded to interrogate all the victims. During the interrogation, they were again beaten with a stick 2-3 times. On the morning of May 5, some of the victims were again interrogated by the police. The police then allegedly forced them to dig a big pond within the DPO premises. They were compelled to work for digging the pond during the 5 day period of their detention at the DPO, Banke.

All the eight victims were produced to the Banke District Court on 6 May 6 2007 on the charge of rubbery. The Court remanded them for 10 days and again remanded for more days with the same charge on May 11. However, we were informed that at the time of remand the judges did not ask the victims whether they had been tortured in police custody. The victims also could not complain to the courts about their torture as the police were presenting in court.

Due to severe assault by the police, one victim Jiwan Chaudhari developed severe pain in his one ear. However, when he was examined by the doctor at Bheri Zonal Hospital, Banke district, the doctor simply said that his ear drum was swollen due to a flue, although Jiwan Chaudhari did not have any flue.

On 11 May 2007, the Advocacy Forum filed application, on behalf of Mewalal, Jiwan Chaudhari and Mayaram Chaudhari, for medical check-up before the Banke District Court, after receiving their complaint of having pain when the Advocacy Forum staff met them at DPO, Bake on 10 May 2007. The judge then issued an order for their medical check-up on the same day. However, they were only brought by the police to Bheri Zonal Hospital, Banke district for the medical check-up on 14 May 2007.

The seven victims except Aman Chaudhary were released on bail on the bail amount of rupees 5000 each on 23 May 2007. Aman Chaudhary was later released on the same day in the condition to report to the DPO, Banke district after a week.

The AHRC is deeply concerned by this serious case that all the victims including 6 minors had been arbitrarily arrested without any particular charges or complaint lodged against them and further subjected to severe torture.

In another case, Mr. Bablu Rai alias Sojhe, a 34 year-old man residing in Nepalgunj Metropolitan City-15, was arrested by a policeman named Dilip of the Nepalgunj Custom Office, Nepalgunj, Banke district at around 7:00pm on 6 May 2007. At the time of arrest, the victim was returning Nepalgunj from Rupediha of India, where he went for his personal work.  It is reported that the victim took drugs at that time. Mr. Bablu was arrested on the charge of drug smuggling, which he denies it.

Immediately after the arrest, Mr. Bablu was handed over to the Jamunaha Police Post, Nepalgunj, Banke district, where he was subjected to severe torture. According to him, some 6-7 police personnel allegedly made him to lie down on the floor and brutally tortured him. They hit hard on soles of his feet with a plastic pipe and stick and indiscriminately assaulted him all over his body for about 2 hours during the interrogation. He still has some visible bruises and cuts on his body.

After being tortured, Mr. Bablu was transferred to DPO, Banke district, at about midnight for the further investigation. He was remanded there for 5 days until 6 May 2007 and his remand at the DPO was extended for another 30 days on 10 May 2007. The Banke district police authority said that Mr. Bablu had been taken to the Bheri Zonal Hospital, Banke district on 6 May 2007 for medical check-up. However the victim claims that he did not receive any medical attention at that time.

One lawyer of the Advocacy Forum finally met the victim on 22 May 2007, after failing to interview him several times due to alleged obstacles made by the police authority. After interviewing him, Advocacy Forum filed a complaint on behalf of Mr. Bablu to the Banke District Court for his medical check-up on the same day. However, the district court endorsed the application stating that the complaint only can be registered in the next period of remand after his 30 day remand is completed. The Advocacy Forum then appealed to the Appellate Court, Nepalgunj against the district court decision. However the Appellate Court dismissed the appeal based on the ground that the complaint had not been registered to the district court.  Mr. Bablu is still detained at DPO, Bake district to date.

The AHRC appeals that no one, even the criminals, should be subjected to torture in any circumstance. This is also against the Nepal’s obligation under the Convention against Torture (CAT) to which it is a state party. The investigating authority should not take torture as a method of the investigation against a suspect. If there is sufficient evidence to prove Mr. Bablu’s guilty act, he should be prosecuted and punished in due process.

The AHRC are also concerned that in both cases no medical check-up has been given to the victims in earlier stage after torture. We believe that the denial of the medical check-up and the prolong detention of the victims in the DPO intend to wait until the physical evidence of torture are faded away from the bodies of the victims. One of the main purposes of medical check-up of the detainees is to prevent the act of torture or ill-treatment of the detainees by the detaining authorities. However, Banke district police violated this important procedure to escape from the legal responsibility for their crimes.

No serious action has yet been taken by the local authorities to investigate the alleged two torture cases and arrest the perpetrators.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write to the relevant Nepali authorities and express your serious concern about these two cases. Please urge them to immediately launch an impartial investigation into the cases and bring the perpetrators to justice as soon as possible. The AHRC has already informed these two cases to Prof. Manfred Nowak, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and asked for his urgent intervention into these cases.

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