CCPR/C/122/D/2265/2013
husband’s disappearance but was not allowed to enter the building and was threatened with
arrest.
2.6
Mr. Sharma reports that he was detained incommunicado in the Bhairabnath
Battalion barracks located in Maharajgunj. During the first 20 days of his detention, he did
not receive any food. For the first month, he was detained in a small, windowless cell he
could barely stand or sleep in. Subsequently, he was detained in a larger cell in poor
sanitary condition and severely underfed. He was handcuffed and blindfolded at all times
and not allowed to communicate with other detainees. Mr. Sharma was repeatedly
subjected to torture and ill-treatment by the guards for the purpose of obtaining information
on the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). That torture and ill-treatment took the form of
beatings with plastic bars, flogging, simulated drownings, electric shocks and the insertion
of thumbtacks through his nails. Mr. Sharma was interrogated and beaten up to 15 times a
day at the beginning of his detention, then two or three times a day. He was repeatedly
threatened with death and was therefore in a constant state of fear and anguish. One day,
Mr. Sharma was forced to urinate on a high-voltage electric heater. He felt a shock and lost
consciousness. No medical treatment was provided to him during his detention, and only
after the shock to his genitals was he given painkillers. As a result of the severe illtreatment he was subjected to, he suffers from permanent physical impairments and is
sexually impotent; because of his excessive use of painkillers while he was undernourished,
his right kidney is dysfunctional.
2.7
While he was detained and being subjected to interrogation, ill-treatment and torture,
Mr. Sharma recognized several army officers who had been involved in his arrest.
2.8
One particular night in late December 2003, Mr. Sharma was told that he and some
other detainees would be taken to an undisclosed location. They had been separated from
the group, but shortly thereafter, he and a few others were sent back to the barracks. He
later learned that the other detainees had been shot and buried in the jungle.
2.9
On 12 October 2004, the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Control and
Punishment) Act was replaced by an ordinance of the same name extending the time that an
individual could be kept in pretrial detention to a maximum of six months, renewable once.
A new state of emergency was declared from 1 February to 5 May 2005, leading again to
the suspension of the derogable rights of the Covenant.
2.10 On 4 February 2005, Mr. Sharma’s lawyer filed a request to the Supreme Court to
direct the National Human Rights Commission to conduct an investigation into his enforced
disappearance. The Supreme Court ordered the investigation the same day.
2.11 In February 2005, Mr. Sharma was transferred to the Mahendradal Battalion
barracks in Gorkha District. On 8 March 2005, the Nepalese Government eventually replied
to the urgent appeal issued by the Special Rapporteur on torture and the Chair of the
Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, claiming that Mr. Sharma had
been “arrested on 14 February 2005 and was under preventive detention in Gorkha
barracks”.
2.12 Mr. Sharma remained in detention in the Mahendradal Battalion barracks and
continued to be subjected to ill-treatment by the guards. On 20 and 28 March 2005, his wife
and his lawyer were finally able to visit him.
2.13 On 19 May 2005, the National Human Rights Commission, following the Supreme
Court’s order to conduct an investigation into Mr. Sharma’s disappearance, found that he
had been in detention in the Mahendradal Battalion barracks in Gorkha since at least 25
March 2005 and that he had been subjected to severe mental and physical torture during his
detention.
2.14 In August 2005, Mr. Sharma was taken to Birendra Military Hospital in Kathmandu,
where, instead of receiving medical treatment, he was forced to sign documents while
blindfolded. Immediately thereafter, he was transferred to the custody of the Jagadal
Battalion of the First Brigade of the Royal Nepalese Army in Chhauni, where he was
placed in custody for three days. On the first day he did not receive any food. When he
complained, he was severely beaten. His right jaw was broken, and his eardrum was
punctured. His eardrum is punctured to this day.
3