CCPR/C/112/D/2111/2011
The facts as submitted by the author
2.1
As a result of the armed conflict prevailing in the country, the State party authorities
declared a state of emergency in November 2001. The Terrorist and Disruptive Activities
Ordinance (2001) allowed State agents to arrest individuals on the basis of mere suspicion of
involvement in terrorist activities and various constitutionally granted human rights and
freedoms were suspended. Against this background, both parties to the conflict, including
the police and the Royal Nepalese Army, committed atrocities and enforced disappearances
became a widespread phenomenon.1 Moreover, in August 2003, the Army arbitrarily
detained several members of the All Nepal National Independent Students’ Union
(Revolutionary) (ANNISU-R), the student wing of the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist
(CPN-M). During that period, the Maharajgunj army barracks in Kathmandu, which hosted
the Bhairabnath and the Yudha Bhairab battalions, became notorious as a place in which
persons suspected of being Maoists were detained, ill-treated, tortured, disappeared and
killed.2
2.2
Mr. Tripathi was a member of the ANNISU-R Central Committee and head of the
division of education in Kathmandu. On or about 2 August 2003, he was arrested by army
personnel. He was detained in an unknown location in the Kathmandu Valley for 17 days
and kept incommunicado for the first 3 days following his arrest. He was severely illtreated. On or about 19 August 2003, he was handed over to the police and kept in the
District Police Office in Hanumandhoka, Kathmandu, until his release on 5 September
2003. He then stayed at a friend’s house, in Shantinagar, Banseshwor Municipality,
Kathmandu district. He and the author had daily phone contact until 26 September 2003.
After that date she was not able reach him again.
2.3
As the author knew that her husband had an appointment to meet a friend at the
Shantinagar Gate, on 27 September 2003 she went to the gate. However, a petrol-pump
attendant told her that he saw a man, who fitted the description of her husband, being
arrested and taken away by a group of persons in plain clothes. She assumed that he had
been taken by the Army, as had happened to many others Maoist supporters.
2.4
On 28 September 2003, the author tried to report her husband’s arbitrary arrest to the
District Police Office in Hanumandhoka, Kathmandu. However, she was informed that
such “incidents” were not the responsibility of the police. On the same day, she visited
several army barracks within the Kathmandu Valley to ascertain his whereabouts, without
success. She continued visiting the barracks regularly until the ceasefire agreement was
signed between the CPN-M and the Seven Party Alliance in May 2006. Although she was
never harassed or threatened, each time she visited the barracks she met with complete
indifference from army officers.
2.5
On 29 September and 1 October 2003 respectively,, Mr. S.P., an advocate acting on
his own initiative, and the author lodged writs of habeas corpus before the Supreme Court
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2
The author refers to the report of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances on
its visit to Nepal (E/CN.4/2005/65/Add.1), para. 25; and the report of the Special Rapporteur on
torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment on his visit to Nepal
(E/CN.4/2006/6/Add.5), para. 17.
The author refers to the report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights (OHCHR) of an investigation into arbitrary detention, torture and disappearance at the
Maharajgunj RNA barracks, Kathmandu, in 2003 and 2004 (May 2006), available at:
http://nepalconflictreport.ohchr.org/files/docs/2006-05-26_report_ohchr_eng.pdf; and the report of an
investigation by the National Human Rights Commission into disappearances at the Maharajgunj
barracks, which was ordered by the Supreme Court and submitted to it on 7 September 2009.
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