Manslaughter complaint lodged against 20 people in Rukum incident

Kathmandu - Complaints have been filed against 20 people for their involvement in the incident that took place on May 23 at Soti, Chaurjahari in Paschim Rukum. Three people died and as many went missing after a group of youths from Jajarkot who had gone to Soti to meet the girlfriend of one of them were attacked by some people there.

Many among the group sustained injuries in the incident. The families of the victims of the attack have filed complaint of attempt to murder against 20 persons including the Chaurjahari municipality Ward 8 Chair, Dambar Bahadur Malla, the girl's father Bir Bahadur Malla, the girl's mother Prakashi Malla, Santosh Malla, Ramesh Malla and Mahesh Punmagar , among others. Dalit rights activists and the victims' families have also submitted a memorandum to the District Administration Office Jajarkot calling for an impartial investigation into the incident, for compensation from the State to the victims' families, for making arrangements for free medical treatment to the people injured in the incident and for intensifying search for the people gone missing in the incident.

The Victims' families have agreed to take the victims' dead bodies after Chief District Officer of Jajarkot, Janak Raj Panta, gave assurances of taking the necessary initiatives with the related bodies for fulfilling their demands and meeting the demands. Post-mortem examination of one Tikaram Sunar has been done while the same of two others would be done today, CDO Panta said. Nawaraj BK and Ganesh Budha of Bheri municipality-4 and Sunar of Chaurjahari municipality-8 had died in the incident.

According to him, a search is intensified for the three people gone missing in the Thulo Beri river. The locals and personnel of Nepali Army, Nepal Police and the Armed Police Force are involved in the search. Lokendra Sunar and Govinda Shahi of Bheri municipality-11 and Sandip BK of Bheri municipality-4 are still missing in the incident. According to eyewitnesses, some of the youths in the group had jumped into the river to save their lives after they were attacked.

It is said the search teams are facing difficulty in the search for the missing due to the lack technical resources including divers. The Rukum Police has deputed Police Inspector Kabi Roka for investigating into the incident. He said investigation has been started by taking 12 people including the Ward Chair Malla into custody. "It cannot be said at this moment whether the people were killed deliberately or died while running away to save their lives. The reality will gradually be known after thorough investigation," Roka said.