The Supreme Court has directed the Nepal Police to start criminal investigations against 12 individuals, including the then home minister Ram Bahadur Thapa and then inspector general of Nepal Police, Sarbendra Khanal, in the 2019 killing of Kumar Paudel in Sarlahi district.

A division bench of justices Manoj Kumar Sharma and Shreekanta Poudel issued a writ of mandamus against the police, particularly the District Police Office, Sarlahi, to proceed with the probe. Kumar Paudel’s family had moved the top court seeking its intervention.

“The division bench issued a mandamus order as requested by the victim’s family,” Arjun Prasad Koirala, spokesperson at the court, said. “The Sarlahi district police has been asked to launch an investigation.”

Paudel’s family says the court’s directive has raised hope for justice. “Our years-long struggle is finally paying off. We are very hopeful that the culprits will now be prosecuted,” said Laxmi, the sister of the deceased.

Initially, the complaint against the 12 was filed by a letter after the district police office and the district attorney's office repeatedly refused to accept it in person.

In addition to Thapa and Khanal, Paudel’s mother, Durga Devi, had filed a complaint against then chief of Madhesh province Hari Bahadur Pal, then chief district officer Krishna Kumar Raut, and then superintendent of police Gopal Chandra Bhattarai.

Thapa, a former Maoist, is currently the vice-chair of the CPN-UML, Raut is currently serving as a secretary at the Election Commission. Khanal, who was earlier with the CPN-UML, contested the March 5 elections by forming his own political party.

A complaint was also filed against police inspector Kiran Neupane; sub-inspector Surya Karki; the doctor who conducted the post-mortem, Dr Birendra Kumar Mandal; police inspector Krishna Dev Prasad Sah; head constables Satya Narayan Mishra and Binod Sah; and Bharat Kumar Thapa, the mayor of Bagmati Municipality, where the killing took place.

Paudel, the Sarlahi district in-charge of the Netra Bikram Chand-led splinter Maoist outfit Communist Party of Nepal, was killed on June 20, 2019, in Lalbandi of the district, in what police had claimed was “police action”.

The police had claimed that security personnel had to open fire in self-defence after a group of four persons in motorcycles fired at a police patrol. Appearing before different parliamentary committees and the House of Representatives, Thapa had also claimed that Paudel was killed during police action in self-defence.

Following public controversy over Paudel’s death, the government had formed an inquiry team led by an under-secretary at the Ministry of Home Affairs. The inquiry had concluded that it was Paudel who first opened fire at police.

To support the claim that he was killed in a clash, the police had claimed that they recovered a revolver and four rounds from the site.

Similarly, a country-made pistol, two bullets and 200 blank identity cards of the Nepal Landless Squatters Association were found in a bag belonging to Paudel, according to police. Chand’s party, however, had insisted that police detained Paudel and murdered him in the forest.

On several occasions, Thapa, the former home minister, had repeated that Paudel died while police were taking action to “defend democracy”.

However, an investigation by the National Human Rights Commission, launched after complaints from family members, found that Paudel died under suspicious circumstances and concluded that the death was extrajudicial. After months of probe, the constitutional human rights watchdog found that he was “killed after being taken into custody”.

The constitutional human rights body had recommended action against five police officials involved. It had asked the government to suspend and file criminal charges against Inspector Krishnadev and head constables Sah and Mishra for their involvement in the incident. It had also recommended criminal investigation against police inspector Neupane and sub-inspector Karki for submitting false reports about Paudel’s killing.

The commission also stated that the government’s investigation was biased and called for an independent mechanism for investigating sensitive incidents like Paudel’s killing.

“Ensure the commission is informed within 24 hours of suspicious deaths, such as those occurring during encounters, in custody, or in rape cases,” reads one of the recommendations. However, successive governments ignored the commission’s directives.

Shyam Babu Kafle, assistant spokesperson at the commission, said not a single recommendation regarding Paudel’s killing has been implemented by the authorities. “The government was reluctant even to pay compensation to the family of the deceased,” he told the Post.

In addition to recommending action against the perpetrators, the commission had asked the government to pay Rs 300,000 in compensation to the family.