CCPR/C/123/D/2658/2015
house. The Army then arrested two other men from the same village on suspicion of
involvement in planting the bomb. Mr. Bolakhe was in Bhaktapur at the time.
2.5
Some days after, the Army arrested his elder brother, who was found in possession
of a note from the Maoists. He was tortured and ill-treated, and repeatedly asked whether
Mr. Bolakhe had connections to the Maoists. He was released after his father had signed a
document committing to help capture a Maoist commander.
House search, interrogation and threats
2.6
On 20 December 2003, Army personnel from the Bhakundebesi barracks came to
Mr. Bolakhe’s house and searched the entire premises.4 At the time, Mr. Bolakhe was in
Gatthaghar but the author and her four children were at the house. The Army scolded them
and asked about Mr. Bolakhe’s whereabouts. The Army personnel said that he was a
Maoist and that they had come to arrest him, and asked her to send him to the barracks
upon his return. On 21 December 2003, the author went to meet her husband and told him
about the Army’s visit. On 23 December 2003, Mr. Bolakhe went to Bhakundebesi
barracks where he was interrogated and threatened with death before he was released.
Second arrest and enforced disappearance
2.7
On 27 December 2003, Mr. Bolakhe travelled by bus from Bhaktapur to Banepa for
some church-related activities. While he was getting off the bus in Banepa, the Head
Constable of Kavre District Police Office, in plain clothes, approached him, hugged him
and said that the Deputy Superintendent of Police wanted to see him and took him away.
Mr. Bolakhe’s father, who was waiting at the bus station, and two shopkeepers located
nearby witnessed the arrest. Immediately afterwards, the father went to Kavre District
Police Office looking for his son but the arrest was denied. On the same day, the father,
accompanied by the author, went to Satrumardan Army barracks in Dhulikhel (Dhulikhel
barracks) looking for Mr. Bolakhe. They were severely reprimanded by the Army who
denied having made such an arrest. One Army personnel member on duty told them that the
previous night a man had been brought to the barracks. Based on his physical description,
the author believed her husband was in Dhulikhel barracks. When the father visited the
barracks again, he saw his son from afar. After that he made frequent visits, but was never
given access to his son.
2.8
On 28 December 2003, Mr. Bolakhe’s sister received a telephone call from someone
pretending to be a friend of Mr. Bolakhe, saying that her brother was at one of his friend’s
home. The telephone call was made from the District Forest Office, where the Army was
stationed. A few days later, an Army officer from Dhulikhel barracks approached the sister
and said that he had made that telephone call, and asked for money for her brother for
tobacco. On a different occasion, an Army sergeant told the sister that her brother was in
Dhulikhel barracks.
Detention at the Gorakhnath Battalion Army camp
2.9
Based on testimony by a former detainee, R.P., the author’s husband was transferred
at some point to the Gorakhnath Battalion Army camp in Panauti. R.P. testified that he had
first met Mr. Bolakhe in a detention room on 13 February 2004, before he went with him on
a search mission.
2.10 R.P. also testified that he had previously been held in detention at that Army camp
for three weeks in December 2003. During his time in detention, he had stayed blindfolded
in a trench with poor conditions of hygiene, having to sleep on the floor without being
given proper food or water. The detainees ate fruit and vegetable peelings, and had a dirty
toilet and a tap that was dry most of the time. The Army used to call the detainees for
interrogation and severely beat them with blunt objects, punching and kicking them all over
their bodies. Although Mr. Bolakhe was transferred to the camp at a later stage, there was
no reason to suggest that the conditions at the camp had changed. While on patrol, Mr.
Bolakhe told R.P. that during his detention at the camp he had been frequently interrogated
4
According to the complaint submitted by the author, there was no search warrant.
3