Police have recorded statements from the family members of 15-year-old Kiran Karki Dholi who died in custody of Birtamod Area Police Office in Jhapa on April 14.

The teenager’s death, initially ruled as suicide by police, is being investigated following a public uproar.

Three committees have been formed at the local, district and provincial levels to probe the teenager’s death.

On Wednesday night, the committee formed by the provincial police recorded statements from Kiran’s family members.

The probe team, led by SSP Kishor Dahal, had visited the boy’s home to record statements.

The team could not persuade Kiran’s father Ramesh to talk, but they spoke with his sister Pratima and sister-in-law Sirjana. “I told them [police] everything I had seen and gone through,” said Pratima.

Sirjana told the team that their suspicion was raised when police barred them from seeing the spot where Kiran had allegedly committed suicide. Kiran’s family has been insisting that he was tortured to death.

The teenager was arrested on April 12 on charge of stealing a mobile phone. He died two days later. The Birtamod Area Police Office had taken Kiran’s body to Mechi Zonal Hospital in Bhadrapur for post-mortem without informing his family.

In the wake of Kiran’s death, his father Ramesh had told the media that there were bruises and scars all over his son’s body.

Meanwhile, the district leadership of Nepal Communist Party has warned of action against the party’s Dalit members raising their voice against Kiran’s death. The Dalit members of the ruling party were planning to organise a protest rally to exert pressure on the

government to provide justice to the teenager, but they withdrew their plan after Chintan Pathak, NCP Jhapa district chairman, issued a stern warning to the party’s Dalit front.

NCP youth leader Tika Magrati took to Facebook to announce the withdrawal of their planned rally owing to the warning issued by the party’s district leadership.

According to a party source, the NCP district leadership is protecting the chief of Birtamod Area Police Office, DSP Subash Khadka, by keeping the party’s Dalit members silent.

Khadka is the son-in-law of NCP leader and former minister Mahesh Basnet.