Friends and relatives of the youths who were allegedly lynched in Soti, Rukum (West), continued their demonstrations in Khalanga, the district headquarters of Jajarkot, on Tuesday to protest the ‘falsified’ postmortem report. The demonstrators were also joined by the locals.

The protesters gathered in various places of the district headquarters early Tuesday morning and took out rallies that moved around the town. They demanded authorities to scrap the alleged falsified postmortem reports, and punish the doctor involved in preparing the report.

“The public inquiry deed of the bodies prepared by the police does not match with the postmortem report. The victims’ nose, arms, legs and teeth were broken when we took out the bodies from the Bheri river. But the postmortem reports point at drowning as the cause of their death,” said Nagendra Shah, the coordinator of the struggle committee fighting to ensure justice to the families of the Soti incident.

The struggle committee held its meeting on Monday and decided to submit a memorandum to a parliamentary committee—formed to probe the incident and collect evidence—to file a case against the doctor who allegedly falsified the postmortem report.

On Monday, the protesters vandalised the Jajarkot District Hospital. Six persons, including two police officers, were injured in the incident.

Chief District Officer Janakraj Panta urged the kin of the victims and the struggle committee to organise the protests in a peaceful manner. Security has been tightened in the district headquarters and the district hospital, he added.

The villagers of Soti in Chaurjahari Municipality, Rukum (West), had allegedly chased away Nabaraj BK and 18 of his friends from the neighbouring district of Jajarkot upon learning that the group had come to help Nabaraj elope with his 17-year-old girlfriend on May 23. The bodies of Nabaraj and five of his friends were later recovered from the Bheri river. They were allegedly murdered by the villagers and thrown into the river.

As per the autopsy report, Nabaraj had sustained injuries in his head and arms. A doctor at the Karnali Provincial Hospital in Surkhet, who studied the autopsy reports, told the Post that the report does not mention the nature of the wounds, like whether they were caused after death or if they were inflicted by sharp-edged weapons.

The Rukum District Attorney’s Office on Sunday filed three different charges against 34 people for their alleged involvement in the killings of the Dalit youths in Soti. Homicide, attempted homicide and caste-based discrimination and untouchability charges have been filed against the perpetrators.