Police remove police

Bhattarai government sent police to detain policemen involved in the investigation of Thapa’s murder

Less than a week after assuring Nepal-based envoys that he was going to ensure that the Truth and Reconciliation Bill reflected international norms, the Bhattarai government on Wednesday at midnight sent police to detain policemen in Dailekh involved in the investigation of a journalist’s murder in 2003.

The case of Dekendra Thapa, the Dailekh reporter who was tortured and killed by the Maoists during the war, has become an iconic case emblematic of the state of impunity in the country. It also reflects the determination of the Maoists in government not to dig up wartime atrocities by themselves and state security, and to protect the accused.

The irony of it all is that Dailekh police chief Sharad Chaudhary, Inspector Indra Subedi and Kiran Neupane were held by a police unit sent from Surkhet and Nepalganj and accompanied by truckloads of about 600 Maoist YCL.

Dailekh has been tense as the Maoists staged their District Convention, and the opposition parties tried to stop Prime Minister Bhattarai from attending in protest against his instruction to stop the investigation into the Dekendra case.

Among the police team investigating the case, only Inspector Binod Sharma is still on his job.