The fact that the Nepal Police are oblivious to their job description—to protect lives and provide security to Nepali citizens—is evident in the way their actions have been imperilling the lives of the public. A new report—Rise of torture in 2018—published by Advocacy Forum, an organisation that aims to combat the culture of impunity in Nepal, revealed that people from ethnic communities in the Tarai are more prone to torture and misbehaviour from the police. Findings of the report as mentioned in a story carried in this paper reveal that while overall torture rates in detention centres across the country have risen sharply, Tarai communities, primarily Madhesis and Tharus, are facing the brunt of the punishment. Such differential treatment by the police—an extension of the government who are circumstantially allowed to use force—is condemnable and it needs to stop.

The report maintains that among the 1,165 detainees—from six districts, interviewed in 2018—22.2 percent said they were mistreated by security forces. On average, torture rates have been increasing at 1 percent annually since 2015, when 17.5 percent of the detainees had reported abuse at the hands of the police, according to the report. What’s more, members of the ‘upper castes’ described the least number of such incidents while those from the ‘lower castes’ reported otherwise. A paltry 1.7 percent of Brahmins complained of abuse while 30.5 percent of Dalits alleged the same. The report finds out that females too were mistreated at a higher rate in detentions.

Last there, there was much uproar when Ram Mahohar Yadav—a Free Madhes activist—died in police custody 10 days after being arrested. Some months before this incident, the police had unleashed brutal violence in Jumla, that too on hospital premises while trying to fly back the agitating orthopaedic surgeon Dr Govinda KC back to Kathmandu. Even when citizens are holding peaceful protests, water cannons are increasingly being used, and the police further do not hesitate to even batton charge the protestors—an example of high-handedness that is also reflective of the arrogance of the current government. Be it in the streets or inside lock-ups, the people who were sworn in to serve the public have been bringing disrepute upon themselves.

Robert Peel—the father of modern policing, called the police the ‘citizens in uniform’: they must not forget this. Their treatment of inmates must be fair. For long, the Nepali establishment has been denounced for its differential treatment towards people from the Tarai. The police cannot base their treatment towards anyone on the basis of ethnicity, gender, caste or class.