A police officer at Dailekh District Police Office told Republica that they will be forced to discontinue recording the statements of the accused from Sunday once they received a letter that AG Pradhan has sent to them. [break]
Dailekh police had not received the AG´s letter as of Friday as their fax machine was out of order.
Similarly, District Attorney Dambar Kafle had also not received the letter as of Friday as he was away in Surkhet on personal business. “In case we are somehow handed the letter on Sunday, we will have to stop recording the statements,” said the police officer.
Earlier on Friday, AG Pradhan had written to the Dailekh police office and the District Attorney´s Office, instructing them to stop recording the statements as ´it would be against the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2006. In his letter, Pradhan had also argued that taking any legal action against those involved in cases of human rights violation during wartime would be against the Government Cases Act, 2049 (1992).
In Dailekh, locals on Saturday staged demonstrations and burnt effigies of Prime Minister Baburam Bhattrai and AG Pradhan, accusing the two of trying to let the murderers of journalist Thapa off the hook.
The agitators burnt the effigies after Pradhan pressured the District Police Office (DPO) and the District Attorney´s Office (DAO) to halt the investigations in the Dekendra Thapa murder, sending written instructions allegedly at the direction of Bhattarai himself.
According to a source, “Prior to this current move, both the PM and the attorney general had used abusive words against the court proceeding with the case of the five UCPN (Maoist) cadres accused of murdering Thapa.”
After learning of the written statement from the Office of the Attorney General (OAG), the irate protestors chanted slogans demanding the immediate resignation of PM Bhattarai and the sacking of the attorney general. The protestors took out a rally from Dekendra Chowk and burnt the effigy of the PM in front of the district police office.
Regardless of directives from the attorney general to stop the investigations, the district court had remanded the five accused to seven days in judicial custody and the task of recording their statements was carried out by the prosecuting attorney on Thursday.
According to an official at the DPO, it will be difficult to preceed with the investigations if the order to suspend the exercise comes in the form of a written statement from the OAG.
Apart from the UCPN (Maoist), local members of all the major political parties as well as civil society and the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) have been protesting since January 5. Local members of the political parties have warned of stern protests if the attorney general fails to withdraw his written statement and publicly admits his mistake by Wednesday.
Meanwhile, five different teams have arrived in Dailekh district to analyze the situation after local journalists, the DPO and the DAO started receiving threats to halt investigations of the five Maoist cadres arrested for the murder of journalist Thapa.
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