Four of the alleged perpetrators of the tipper attack in Dhanusha have been remanded in judicial custody for five days. The Dhanusha District Court on Sunday issued the order to keep the accused—Bipin Mahato, Munindra Mahato, Jitendra Mahato and Roshan Kumar Yadav—in custody pending a police investigation.

Police had nabbed the four men in connection to the murder of 24-year-old Dilip Mahato of Sripur. Dilip was crushed to death by a tipper truck on Friday morning, following his protests against the illegal mining of riverbed materials near his home in Sripur.

The alleged perpetrators have been charged with a homicide case, said Superintendent of Police Ramesh Kumar Basnet.

Basnet added that the police on Sunday started taking statements from the alleged perpetrators.

“We have remanded the alleged perpetrators in custody for five days and are currently taking their statements,” Basnet said. “More information will be revealed after the statements are recorded.”

Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission on Sunday issued a press release calling for an impartial and effective investigation into the murder of Mahato.

“Our attention has been drawn to reports that environment activist and human rights defender Om Prakash Mahato [Dilip] of Mithila Municipality Ward No. 5 of Dhanusha was crushed to death by a tripper truck in the Aurahi River in the district on January 10,” reads the statement.

According to the statement, a team from the NHRC in Province 2 will inspect the incident site and investigate the incident. The incident is against human rights and the multilateral treaty adopted by the United Nations in 1966, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, of which Nepal is a signatory, said the human rights watchdog.

“The government should conduct an impartial and effective investigation into the case; provide compensation to the victim's family, and punish the perpetrator(s) according to law and make all the efforts not to let such incident repeat in the future.”