The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the District Police Office and the District Attorney’s Office in Rautahat to furnish written clarifications for not investigating an incident of mass killing in the district.

Responding to a writ petition by advocate Tribhuvan Sah, a single bench of Justice Til Prasad Shrestha demanded justification from the two government units for not commencing an investigation into the 17-year-old massacre. They have 15 days to respond to the show-cause order from the top court.

Sah had moved the top court demanding its intervention with no initiative to probe the killing. On March 21, 2007, as many as 27 individuals associated with the then CPN (Maoist) were brutally killed, with another 115 injured in the incident. Then Madheshi Janadhikar Forum Nepal led by Upendra Yadav, now chair of the Janata Samajbadi Party and deputy prime minister and minister for health and population, was involved in the killing. The National Human Rights Commission has implicated Yadav and 129 others in connection with the crime.

After a years-long investigation, the commission on January 7 last year had asked government agencies through the Prime Minister’s Office to probe the incident and take action against Yadav and others in connection with the crime. In its recommendations, the commission had asked the government to proceed with the investigation of the complaint lodged at the district police on May 11, 2007, and report to it on the progress made, every three months. It also suggested providing Rs300,000 to each victim’s family while also offering free treatment to the injured and seeking details of all that was lost in the incident.

However, the government hasn’t acted on its recommendation yet. As per the commission Act, the government either has to abide by its recommendations or write back to the rights watchdog within three months, explaining why its recommendations cannot be implemented.

Over a year since the commission’s decision, the government has neither abided by it nor explained to the commission why its recommendation wasn’t implemented. “In his response to the commission, Yadav said his attention was drawn to the matter and he respects human rights issues,” Shyam Babu Kafle, the investigation chief at the commission, told the Post. “However, the government has neither commenced any investigation nor given reasons why it hasn’t been done.”

The constitutional rights commission had concluded that the killings of more than two dozen people were orchestrated and that both the then Madheshi Janadhikar Forum-Nepal and the CPN (Maoist) had indications of possible violence when they chose the same venue for their rallies.

Concluding its investigation 17 years after the incident, the commission had also directed the government to take departmental actions against then-Rautahat district police chief Yogeshwar Romkhami; then-chief district officer Madhav Prasad Ojha; Superintendent of Police Ram Kumar Khanal; deputy superintendent of Armed Police Force Dharmananda Sapkota; and sub-inspector Kamakhya Narayan Singh. If they are no longer in service, it asked the authorities concerned not to give them another opportunity in government service.

Several human rights bodies had drawn similar conclusions. In its report in April 2007, Human Rights Watch remarked that there was no doubt that most, if not all, of the killings could have been prevented.

As the Pushpa Kamal Dahal administration continued to ignore the commission’s recommendations, the relatives of the victims began a series of protests in Rautahat on July 29 last year. After six days of agitation, Dahal met the protesters and assured them of an investigation and constituting a home secretary-led panel to hold dialogue and deliver justice. The prime minister, however, didn’t keep his promise.

He instead appointed Yadav as his deputy with an important Cabinet portfolio.

Talking to the Post, Rup Sagar Upadhyay, coordinator of the Gaur Massacre Victims’ Struggle Committee, had said that though her party—the Maoist Centre—had been in power for years, it had failed to investigate the incident. She is wife to Narmadeshwar, one of the massacre victims.

The Maoists have led the government four times while the party has been a part of almost all governments since 2008.

The final hearing in Sah's petition will be held once the written clarification is furnished.