DIG Binod Singh, who is also a spokesperson of Nepal Police, confirmed to Republica on Tuesday that the UN Mission in Liberia repatriated Kunwar, recently. [break]
He has been accused of torturing an accused in police custody, said Singh when asked why Kunwar was repatriated by the DPKO.
Kunwar has been accused of torturing one Arjun Gurung, who was accused of repeated theft in 2009 at Balaju Police Office. He is now facing a torture case at the Kathmandu District Court, which has postponed a verdict in the case for as many as 17 times.
But Kunwar’s eldest brother Baburam Kunwar, a lawyer, told Republica that his brother returned voluntarily due to sickness of his wife. “He was not repatriated. He is flying to Delhi with his wife for treatment in a couple of days” he said.
In recent years, DPKO has been keeping a watch on human rights records of peacekeepers from Nepal. This is the second time the UN has repatriated Nepali peacekeepers on charges of human rights violation at home. Earlier in 2010, the UN had returned Major Niranjan Basnet of the Nepal Army from its peacekeeping mission in Chad.
Confirming the DPKO action against Kunwar, Tejshree Thapa, South Asia Researcher at Human Rights Watch, a New York-based human rights body, told Republica from Holland that Kunwar’s case was brought to the notice of the DPKO in July and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in August. Then, OHCHR, UN rights body, raised the issue before the DPKO, according to Thapa.
According to lawyer Badri Bhusal, who has been defending the victim in the court, “Even a report of forensic doctors established that Gurung was physically tortured in police custody,” Bhusal argued.
But Kunwar’s lawyer brother differed. “My brother was participating in a meeting called by Kalyan Timalsena - then police chief of Kathmandu - at the latter’s office at the time when the incident happened,” he said, dismissing the allegation against his brother.
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