The Supreme Court (SC) has issued a mandamus order to start an investigation against 12 individuals, including former home minister Ram Bahadur Thapa 'Badal' and former IGP Sarbendra Khanal, regarding police ‘encounter’ of leader of Netra Bikram Chand-led party Kumar Paudel six years ago.
A bench of Justices Manoj Kumar Sharma and Shrikant Paudel issued the mandamus to that regard on Thursday, according to Joint Registrar and Spokesperson at the SC Arjun Prasad Koirala.
The complaint against 12 people had been filed at the Sarlahi District Police Office. "The complaint regarding the Kumar Paudel incident was submitted via postal mail," Spokesperson Koirala said. "The mandamus orders that the complaint received by mail be registered according to the law and the investigation be moved forward."
The full text of this mandamus has not yet been released. Koirala stated that the full text will reveal details about the matter.
Kumar Paudel was killed by the police on June 20, 2019. At that time, he was the Sarlahi district in-charge of the Chand-led group.
The police claimed that Paudel died during exchange of fire at Lakhandehi River in Lalbandi-1 while he was returning from a political program. The Chand group, however, has been alleging that Paudel's death was not during exchange of fire, but that the police killed him after taking him into custody. Paudel has also claimed that it was an 'extrajudicial killing'.
Paudel's mother Durga Devi Paudel had filed a complaint against the then home minister Thapa, the then IGP Khanal, the then DIG of Province 2 Hari Bahadur Pal, the then CDO of Sarlahi Krishna Kumar Raut, and the then SP Gopal Chandra Bhattarai.
Additionally, complaints were filed against the then Inspector Kiran Neupane, SI Surya Karki, Dr. Birendra Kumar Mandal (who performed the post-mortem), the then Inspector Krishna Dev Prasad Sah, the then Constable Satya Narayan Mishra, Binod Sah, and the Mayor of Bagmati Municipality Bharat Kumar Thapa.
Durga Devi had sent the complaint via post to investigate her son's murder. However, the investigation process did not move forward.
Following that, she moved the SC stating that the investigation process had not been initiated.
She filed a writ petition naming the District Government Attorney's Office Sarlahi and the District Police Office Sarlahi as defendants on December 13, 2020. Justices Sharma and Paudel issued the mandamus while hearing that petition.
The National Human Rights Commission had also raised questions regarding Paudel’s killing. After an investigation, the Commission recommended suspension of the police officers involved in the incident.
It had called for suspension of the then Inspector Krishna Dev Prasad Sah, Binod Sah, and Satya Narayan Mishra. The Commission also suggested initiating a criminal investigation against the then Inspector Kiran Neupane and SI Surya Kumar Karki.
The Commission also questioned the work of Dr. Birendra Kumar Mandal who conducted the post-mortem.
Similarly, Maoist lawmakers including Rekha Sharma and Janardan Sharma had questioned their own home minister Thapa during the parliamentary hearing on the issue. They raised questions alleging that Paudel’s limbs were broken before he was shot.
Thapa, however, had claimed that Paudel was killed in a police encounter.
"As far as the claim that it wasn't an encounter but a drama staged to eliminate him after taking him into custody is concerned, our serious attention has been drawn to these suggestions. We will conduct the necessary investigation for this," Thapa had told the parliamentary committee. "The state was in the process of controlling the leaders of the Chand group. According to the reports we received, Paudel died in an encounter."
He also claimed before the parliamentary committee that a pistol had been recovered from Paudel.
