INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Kathmandu, February 3
Although the new penal code has criminalised torture, many victims of torture have not been able to get justice as
they have to file the first information report with the nearest police office whose police personnel are often the perpetrators.
Programme
Manager of Advocacy Forum Bikas Basnet said his office had been trying to assist victims in Kanchanpur, Pokhara and Kathmandu to file
torture cases against police officers, who tortured them, but the police officers refused to register the FIR.
Section 167 (2) of the penal
code imposes jail term not exceeding five years or fine not exceeding Rs 50,000 or both for meting out torture to anybody.
Basnet said that
in some cases the Office of the Attorney General had written to the police office telling it to register FIR, and yet the police offices
In the absence of FIR, investigation against police officers accused of torture cannot proceed.
Human rights lawyer Mohan Kumar Karna said
criminalisation of torture happened after persistent struggle of rights activists, but the legal provision that required the torture victims
to file FIR at the nearest police office was proving an obstacle as many torture victims were either intimidated by police officers or given
financial incentives for not filing FIR
He said torture victims could file cases directly at the court but many victims found it a complicated process
Some torture victims chose not to file cases against police personnel because they feared that the police personnel might frame them in
criminal cases.
&We have seen in the past when victims moved the court, the court gave ruling in the victims& favour telling the police to
In some cases, police offices register their FIRs after the court ruling, but even then the investigation does not move ahead in the
expected manner,& he said.
Basnet and Karna said the problems faced by torture victims could be addressed only when a separate agency was
formed to investigate torture allegations levelled against police personnel.
Basnet said the investigating police officer in Pokhara was a
police inspector but the victim was tortured by a DSP.
&How can a lower rank police officer investigate torture allegation against his/her
senior officer?& he wondered.
Last month, the Supreme Court issued a writ of mandamus in a case filed by advocate Sunil Ranjan Singh and
others against the government where petitioners had urged the court to order the government to form a separate commission authorising it to
investigate cases of extra judicial killings that took place in the past in the Tarai districts
The SC is yet to prepare the full text of the verdict.
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