High Court issues mandamus over writ petition filed by Maoist insurgency victims

The Tulasipur bench of the High Court, Butwal, has issued a mandamus over a writ petition filed demanding the whereabouts of those who disappeared during the Maoist insurgency.

A bench comprising judges Nityananda Pandey and Mamata Khanal issued the order responding to the writ petition filed in the court by Budhu Pasi and Dhan Kumari Tharu on behalf of the families of disappeared people.  

Advocates Shiva Prasad Gaudel and Indira Acharya pleaded in favour of the petition.

It is said, their repeated calls to the concerned authorities for finding the whereabouts of the disappeared had been largely ignored.

Their earlier effort to file a police case on the International Day of the Disappeared could not be fruitful due to reluctance of the district police office to register the report. So with nowhere to go, they knocked on the door of the court.

Lautu Pasi alias Ram Palat of the then Bodawar VDC-3 (now Rohini Rural Municipality-5) in Rupandehi was arrested in 2059 BS and subsequently disappeared, according to the petition.

Victim Budhu said that though they knocked on the door of the Police Office to file an FIR, it did not happen and they eventually reached the court.

Saying he met his elder brother on June 7, 2004 for the last time, Budhu demanded the disclosure of the whereabouts of his elder brother at the earliest.

Similarly, it has been one and half decades since the disappearance of the spouse of Dhan Kumari Tharu of Siyari rural municipality-6 in Rupandehi.

Tharu shared that writ petition was filed at the Court, seeking the disclosure of the situation of Kamal, who disappeared on August 27, 2005 from state side.  

Security personnel in plain clothes had apprehended Kamal from Bansgadhi at a time when he was going to his in-laws house.

The Comprehensive Peace Accord signed between the then rebel side and government has mentioned that the whereabouts of disappeared persons should be made public within 60 days after disappearance, but the implementation of the agreement is still awaited.

The victim families complained the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons has failed to carry out effective works even after seven years of its formation.

Nira Gautam/RSS