The incident took place last week in the village of Jagatpur, in Saptar district, a local official said.

He said a group of Maoists entered the village demanding food and then raped several women at gunpoint in the presence of family members.

A local activist has denied the Maoists were involved.

He told the BBC the rebels had detained a "criminal" in connection with the incident and were looking for other people involved.

In the morning of 23rd August 2005, many Dalit organizations, - activists and other human rights defenders were shocked seeing the news "25 Women Raped" in the Kantipur Daily. The news report mentioned that Maoists raped 25 Dalit women in Saptari district. To find out what really happened that night in Saptari, a team of different human rights and Dalit organizations headed towards Saptari from Kathmandu to start a fact-finding mission. Jagaran Media Center's (JMC) district reporting team was already present at the place of the incident. 

A summary of JMC's fact finding report is published below.

Date of incident: 18 August 2005
Time of incident: Mid-night
Place of incident: Saptari District, Jagatpur VDC-4, Dalit Basti

Detail of incident:

It was the night of 18 August 2005 around 9 p.m., in the Jagatpur VDC-4 of Saptari. Devkant Yadav, Lalit Chaudhari, Pradip Gupta and Dinesh Sardar (calling themselves Maoist) entered the village with armed weapons. All of them, except Dinesh Sardar, went to the house of Shambhu Chaudhari, who is a local resident of the village.

Dinesh Sardar, who called himself the Commander of Maoist, went in the house of Kamala Devi Khanga (name changed) who is from Dalit community. He asked her for food. She informed him that there was only rice to eat and if he wishes, she could prepare union pickle. Dinesh ate the food that was served. While eating the food, he told Kamala that a team of approx. 20 Maoists had come to the village, so no one should come out of their home. After finishing his meal, he left Kamala Devi Khanga's house, went to Shambu Chaudari's house and drank alcohol. After a couple of hours, he returned back and raped Kamala Devi Khanga, keeping the gunpoint on her forehead.

Pradip Gupta, who was sleeping in the house of Shambhu Chaudhari, left his two other friends and came out. He went to Santalal Chaudhari's house and indecently assaulted his wife, 25 years old Dahani Chaudhari. Dahani started shouting at Pradip for coming into her house at midnight being drunk. He ran away from there and went to Dalit Basti (area where Dalit community lives). There he entered the house of Gopali Khanga and indecently assaulted her daughters in law, 29 years old Aarati Devi and 32 years old Nilima Devi (name changed). Also, he took Gopali Khanga in his capture and checked each and every room of her house. At the same time, he smacked Ashok Gupta, the son of Jagadish Gupta for coming out of his home during night.

Next day, the 19th of August 2005, the news spread in the entire village and Dinesh Sardar scampered from Kamala Devi's house early in the morning. Kamala Devi's mother in law disclosed that Maoists raped her daughter in law the night before.

Devkant Yadav and Lalit Chaudhari, who were sleeping in the house of Shambhu Chaudhari came to village to know the truth. Since all the villagers were found very aggressive, both of them also scampered from the village.

Role of Maoists:

After the news came to knowledge of Maoists, Maoists Leaders of the local area, Bhola Chaudhari and Jakir Miya came to Dalit Basti. They took Dinesh Sardar in their control. They asked Dinesh to apologize to the victim in front of all the villagers and promised that they would take action against the culprit. Pradip Gupta had already escaped from the village.

District Secretary of Maoists Avash in a Press Release mentioned that there was no involvement of Maoists in this case and also committed for action against the culprit.

On the 25th of August, the death body of Shambhu Chaudhari was found in Mahuli Bazar. There was a letter attached to his body, written by the Maoist. The letter stated that he was killed by Maoist for raping Priti Devi (known by JMC as Kamala Devi) and for using the name of the Maoists.

 Local residents say that the direct involvement of Shambhu Chaudhari in the rape case is not seen.  Why have the Maoists killed him? For the villagers it is a strange matter. Dinesh Sardar, who was responsible for the rape, is in control of Maoists and the action against him is yet not publicized.

Our conclusions:

• The group involved in the case called themselves Maoists.
• One man raped one Dalit woman.
• One other man indecently assaulted three women (2 Dalit and one so-called 'higher caste'). The same man hit a male from the village. 
• Local Maoists Leader forced the rapist to apologize to the victim, in front of the villagers.
• On the death body of Shambhu Chaudhari, who was killed in the allegation of rape, a letter was attached. This letter informs that he was killed by Maoists.
• Victims say that the Maoists were involved in the incident.
• JMC therefore concludes that there was direct or indirect involvement of Maoists in this case.    =========================================