http://ekantipur.com/
BY KIRAN CHAPAGAIN


OKHALDHUNGA, March 4 - This is the story of how a school headmaster in Okhaldhunga district was disappeared by the authorities in December 2001. It is also about how security agencies then hid the whereabouts of the teacher.
The status of headmaster of Kuibhir Secondary School Chakra Katuwal was "missing" till recently. But no more.

According to eyewitnesses, police and detainees, the army tortured Katuwal and handed him over to the police on December 16, 2001. Katuwal died in police custody, and was "buried" in a jungle about a 15-minute walk from the district police office.

This finding has removed the question mark over Katuwal's fate. But the revelation, from a first-ever complete investigation into a disappearance case and which will have implications for the search for other disappeared, has unearthed how the security agencies weave plots to disappear people in their custody.

Besides, the story is also contrary to what security agencies have been maintaining to date regarding the whereabouts of the 49-year old headmaster. Official documents accessed by ekantipur in Okhaldhunga last week show that Katuwal escaped detention breaking the ventilation of the detention cell toilet at the district police office the night of December 16, 2001.

Ekantipur has uncovered the following scenes in a drama orchestrated by the security agencies to disappear Katuwal.

Katuwal’s arrest

Katuwal was arrested on December 13, 2001 from the District Administration Office where he had been summoned by the District Education Office for an inquiry. He was handcuffed and taken to the district police office the same day.

Torture by army

According to eyewitnesses, police presented Katuwal before the then Ranasingh Dal Company of the then Royal Nepalese Army on December 16, 2001. An eyewitness, who was also tortured by the army the same day, said he saw Katuwal outside the company premises entrance at around 3:15 pm, his body marked with deep cross-like scars and blood. Wearing only underwear, Katuwal looked unconscious and frail. Three other teachers were meted out torture in army detention the same day.

Katuwal was then taken to the police office in the evening through Okhaldhunga bazaar. Three shopkeepers, who witnessed police carrying Katuwal, said the victim was not able to walk and his head was hanging down unconscious.

The army unit and the district police office were about a 15-minute walk from each other.

Another witness, Kishor Adhikari, who is district secretary of the CPN-UML, said he saw Katuwal lying in the passageway of the police office the evening of December 16 when he visited there on his own business. Upon inquiring with then Police DSP Hanuman Sha, he came to know that the person lying prone was Katuwal sir, and the real story unfolded.

Adhikari asked Sha why Katuwal was not being taken to hospital.

Denial of admission

The then in-charge of the detention cell -- whose name has been withheld for security reasons- had at first refused to admit Katuwal in view of his poor physical condition. But the helpless in-charge could not resist orders from above.

According to the statement made to the Supreme Court-formed detainee probe team by one of the policemen who then served in the police office, Katuwal died at the detention center the night of December 16. The body was put in a doko basket the next morning. But the policeman had no further clue.

Similarly, people who shared the detention room with Katuwal that fateful night told the team that Katuwal died as soon as he was taken inside the detention cell. Altogether five detainees were in the cell.

One of the detainee said, "He (Katuwal) first straightened his legs and hands, then opened his eyes wide. I gave him some water in the lid of a coke-bottle. As he did not swallow the water, I asked the police to take him to hospital," he said.

Then three policemen took the body out in a piece of black cloth, the detainee said.

Key witness account

A key witness, who tipped off the team, said he was involved in carrying Katuwal's body to the burial site in a nearby jungle around 15-minute walk from the police office. He had no idea whose body he carried until the policemen "prayed" after the burial, saying, "Chakre! Go to heaven." He then knew that the body was Chakra sir.

The key witness has already left Okhaldhunga bazaar for an unknown place, fearing for his security. He has reportedly received a threat from security agencies though this could not be verified independently. Local leaders told ekantipur that they are concerned over the security of the key witness.

Fake documents

The then security agencies have been found to have prepared fake documents to cover up the death.

The minutes of the meeting of the then district security committee on December 23, 2001, say that security agencies arrested Thakur Bahadur Adhikari and Kul Bahadur Khatri along with others on December 22. The same meeting also noted that Katuwal escaped from detention.

But police records show contradictions. A report prepared by the police on December 20 reveals that Khatri and Adhikari were arrested before December 22. The two had signed the report conforming that Katuwal escaped from detention, breaking the ventilation of the toilet. They said they were forced to sign the fake document.

Missing record

The police office does not have any record of detentions between December 2001 and mid-January 2002 though it has records of detentions for other months.

Was it possible to escape?

Security agencies have been maintaining that Katuwal escaped from detention. Let us check the claim.

The toilet and the detention cell at the police office are at a distance of three feet, and guards are always on stand-by when a detainee goes to the toilet. Only half the 20 inch ventilation is open. It has two iron rods and two wooden rods as bars. According to sources, at the time of Katuwal's detention, all four rods were iron and they were intact. Besides, there were two posts where guards stayed on night duty. Below the posts is a stiff slope. The posts were at a distance of 70ft and 24ft respectively from the ventilation that faces both the posts.

Given the specifications, it seems there is no possibility of escape through the toilet ventilation.

The claim of the security agencies can be questioned on legal grounds also.

According to the Prison Management Act, the in-charge of a detention cell faces criminal charges and a law suit if a detainee under his surveillance escapes. But nobody has been held responsible for this escape. Besides, no complain over the escape has been lodged with the authorities. The law requires that there be an investigation into any escape until the case comes to a logical end. But no investigation has been carried out to date.

Exhuming Katuwal's body

A team from Kathmandu comprising Dr Harihar Osti, Govinda Bandi, Saroj Gautam and Dev Prasad Yogi went about exhuming Katuwal's body Wednesday. But they were unccessful despite nearly three weeks of investigation in the field. The clothes, skull bone, pieces of ribs and broken pieces of maxilla with erupting molars found in the excavation showed that the body was of a child.

Despite the unsuccessful exhumation, the judicial team has come to a logical conclusion about the disappearance of the teacher following field investigations last week.

"Chakra's is custodial death," team member Bandi told ekantipur at the end of the investigation in Okhaldhunga last Wednesday. "It is a homicide," said Bandi who is an expert in international human rights law.