On September 28 last year, six children residing at the All Nepal Football Association’s academy at Shree Batsala Devi Higher Secondary Engineering School in Sisneri, Makwanpur, died in a landslide.

The deceased—Aditya Balampaki, Anupam Ghalan, Bikal Regmi, Diwas Baniya, Priyans Acharya and Saimon Yonjan—were among the 40 under-13 children in the ANFA academy.

It’s been six months since then and the parents of the deceased children have been struggling for justice. They met with everyone from local level leaders to the prime minister, but justice still remained out of reach.

Having been let down by the authorities, four of the six families of the victims decided to fight a legal battle earlier this month. Alongside Balampaki’s, the families of Acharya, Yonjan and Regmi filed a case at the Supreme Court on March 12.

They have named as defendants the ANFA, National Sports Council, Ministry of Youth and Sports, Batsaladevi School, Makwanpur District Police Office and the Ministry of Home Affairs/Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers.

“We knocked on the doors of every possible individual, association and authority but we did not get justice anywhere,” said Bharat Bahadur Thapa, a neighbour of the needy Balampaki family in Lalbandhi, Sarlahi, who has been supporting them in their search for justice. “We moved the court as a last resort.”

Dreams dashed

When Dipesh Baniya, who lived near the academy, learned that his brother was buried in the landslide, he immediately rushed to the site. But it was too late.

“My brother was already buried and dead when I reached there,” Dipesh told Kantipur daily, the Post’s sister publication, two days after the incident.

The parents of other victims received the confirmation of their children’s deaths a day later.

Thapa said that the families of the victims lament the authorities’ indifference following the incident.

“ANFA or the academy, none reached out to the families after the incident,” Thapa told the Post over the phone. “We were shocked to learn about the incident through the news.”

He added, “I do not want to remember the trouble we faced to get Aditya’s body.”

They had to return empty-handed from Kathmandu when they came to receive the body airlifted from Makwanpur. “We had to organise a strike in Lalbandi and shut the highway for a couple of hours demanding the body,” Thapa said. “But the body was first sent to Ramechhap. Again, the body was sent to Janakpur. We brought the body to Sarlahi from Janakpur.”

Balampaki’s family subsists on daily wages. They were happy when their youngest son was selected for the ANFA Academy. “The mother, a cancer patient, was overjoyed thinking that her son would take her out of poverty and become famous playing for the country,” Thapa recalled. However, she has been left shattered ever since she heard her son was no more.

“The children would have survived if there were some seniors to guide them,” Thapa said. “How could an authority leave children aged below 13 years on their own when security forces were informing them that the gates of Kulekhani Dam were going to be opened?”

The children had left the academy hostel early in the morning to reach a safe spot as the authorities were opening the dam. Without anyone to lead them, six children got caught in a landslide.

Following the incident, ANFA’s executive committee, on October 6, 2024, called an emergency meeting.

The meeting decided to compensate the families Rs800,000 each, establish a revolving fund of Rs200,000 under the deceased players’ name, organise ANFA’s school-level competitions in the memory of the six children and erect their statues or representative pillars on Batsaladevi School premises, among others.

“Our children’s lives worth Rs800,000?” questioned the family members in a press meet in Kathmandu on November 19 last year.

The parents had also raised the issues of the academy hostel providing stale food and demanding extra money during the press meet.

Moreover, the Academy was housing children over its capacity. The agreement between ANFA and Batsaladevi School in April 2024 states that ANFA would provide 25 children, while the school’s management committee can add another five players from its selection process of players of similar age groups. But the Academy was housing 40 children in total.

Most importantly, however, the parents stressed that the children died in the landslide due to negligence on part of the academy and its officials.

After the incident, FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who was scheduled to visit Nepal on October 7, 2024, cancelled his trip. ANFA cited the Sisneri incident for the cancellation. “ANFA had not followed FIFA standards regarding the academy and its students,” Thapa said.

“There are many questions that have surfaced after the incident and a proper investigation would reveal them all. The children were future stars of the country. Now they are no more.”

The last resort

The emergency meeting in October had also decided to form a three-member probe committee under the coordination of ANFA executive member Bikash Narayan Shrestha, comprising another member, Tikra Ram Lama, and ANFA’s assistant general secretary, Damodar Bhattarai.

The investigation was completed, and the report was read at the 9th ANFA executive committee meeting. But the families are not willing to accept the investigation.

“How can we accept an investigation by ANFA when they are themselves accused of misdeeds in the case?” Thapa said.

“We have no hopes from ANFA. Even the prime minister has shown no concern. We want a fair investigation, but the deaths are not taken seriously. With no more places to go, we are now in the court.”

Their case is being fought by senior advocate Jyoti Baniya and advocates Sunil Pandey and Sankalpa Baniya.

And the case has already taken a step ahead. On March 14, the single bench of Justice Abdulaziz Musalman issued a show cause notice against the defendants with a 15-day ultimatum. Justice Musalman has also put the case, citing the seriousness of the issue, in the priority list under Section 73 (1) of the Supreme Court Rules, 2017.

But neither ANFA nor the sports ministry were aware of the court’s notice.

“I am officially unaware of the court case and show cause notice yet,” Minister for Youth and Sports Teju Lal Chaudhary told the Post on Wednesday.

Likewise, ANFA spokesperson Suresh Shah also informed that he was formally unaware of the case. “I have heard about it from the media only,” he said. “A high-level investigation is not something we can carry out. It is a demand to the government. We have conducted our internal investigation.”

The authorities claimed that they were always willing to listen to the victims’ families.

“The parents of children who died in Sisneri had come to visit me. ANFA, an autonomous body, was conducting its investigation then. I have not met them after that,” Chaudhary said. “The government is always eager to support them.”

Meanwhile, the parents of Ghalan and Baniya said that the authorities should not let a similar incident repeat in the future.

“It was not supposed to happen, but it did,” said Lalit Ghalan, father of Anupam, who is also the chief of the Makwanpur District Coordination Committee. “My son will not come back, but the authorities can take steps to prevent such incidents from happening again.”