Read a moving memoir by Senior Advocate Kusum Shrestha regarding the case of Bhim Narayan Shrestha martyred in 1977 (?)

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My Remembrances: Bhim Narayan Shrestha

Kusum Shrestha

During my meditation in one fine morning, the image of Bhim Narayan Shrestha flashed in my mind. I resolved to imprint my impressions and experiences on my involvement in his case.

In the year 1974 December an old man in pensive and sad figure appeared in the small dingy room of my previous law firm. I was surprised to see the figure of a forlorn man. I asked him what's the matter. He drew deep breathing and said very halting and hesitant way. I do wonder whether you could take up my case?" I readily replied why not? He looked at me with his unbelieving eyes and said: "But my case is very dangerous and challenging?" I looked back him with my assuring eyes but little taken back and replied that I was ready to face the challenges. He drew deep breathing and sighed out: "Oh! You do not know, I am the father of Bhim Narayan who has been condemned to death by the Special Court finding him guilty on the offence of attempt on the life of the king. I was trying hard to find out lawyer who could defend him. The father carries the straw of last hope." I had not seen the saddest figure with the tears that was dried up. I replied him that I was really honored by being entrusted with the case, which I would do voluntarily as a social responsibility to my best professional efficiency. I saw

the beacon of gratitude that sparked in his eyes. A unique experience to me!

Yes, I went thoroughly in preparation of the appeal. The case related with the Grenade explosion at some place in Birat Nagar on March 16, 1974 long after the return from the visit of the king Birendra in other place of Birat Nagar. The explosion had killed one person and injured some people returning after felicitating the king. The act did not occur at the place of the king's visit and also did not direct to the person of the king. However, indictment was made against Bhim Narayan, Yagya Bahadur Thapa and Giraja Prasad Koirala for attempting to attack on the person of the king on the basis of the so-called confession of Bhim Narayan. The facts as averred by the prosecution did not connect or establish nexus with the jurisdictional facts of attempted offence under section 2 of the State (Offences and Punishment) Act. The essential elements of the crime as laid down were the attempt to assault or overawe by means of criminal force against the king. Even the so called confession did not connect with the ingredients of the crime, as confession stated that the accused changed his mind when he reached at the spot of king's visit and that after the return of the king, it was accidentally exploded afterwards at some other place.

How I found glaring loopholes, despite the confessions that were recorded under duress and torture, which was later retracted through the several petitions. The facts and evidences looked unbelievable without any substantive proof. There was clearly wrong application of law and there was no independence evidence to support the allegation.

But the Zonal judge Ridhi Mananda Bajracharya had given the guilty verdict on the sole ground of the so-called confession. However in his private chitchat the judge had assured the old man that the verdict would surely be overturned by the appellate court or the Supreme Court. And he had to render guilty verdict on the extraneous compulsions beyond his control. A sweaty assurance to the aggrieved man! An easy way out of a judge to escape from guilt conscience for giving injudicious verdict.

Reminiscences flashed in my mind. How I with my associate Surya Dhungel went to Dhankuta to plead the case in companion with the pensive looking old man. We had to walk from Dharan. While climbing uphill from the bottom of Dhankutta I was feeling heavy breathing. Slowly and steady I climbed. Finally with difficulty I reached chuatara of Dhankuta, an open and beautiful resting place: a breath taking scenic beauty with lush forests and surrounded by the green hills, which freshened by cool and invigorating ever flowing air. While I was relaxing for easing my breathing I looked at the old man who looked so sad and without any trace of smile. I was thinking how to brighten him with smile. I rested at the convenient place of chautara. I really enjoyed refreshing air and invigorating environment.

I found everybody in the best jest after the odious uphill climb. Around the chautara bright young damsels were preparing tea and snacks with mischievous touts and jokes shared by all. While heaving sigh of relief and alleviation from tiredness, I was approached by a young girl in her budding youth. She shyly asked me what I wanted to eat. I casually replied "of course tea". She mischievously said that there was no milk though pots of milk were boiling near by. In my jovial mood, I told her: "I do not mind if she mixes her own milk in my tea." That was most unexpected joke. It created peal of hearty laughter around the chautara. Surprisingly, of all, it brought hearty laughter in the old man. The beautiful laughter 1 could never forget.

After all, my joke was not that vulgar, rough and naked and provocative as she used to face. It was really an innocent, on the spur of moment joke relished by all. And, the young girl was really flattered. She served the best tea I had ever tasted, which was, perhaps, mixed with her feeling and love and sympathy. That was culture of chautara - to smile away the tortures of life even if for a fleeting moments. But that culture is now dying out.

When we appeared on May 26, 1976 before the Regional Court consisting of justices Ghana Nath Pant and Gajendra Keshari Bastola, I found a military officer at the forefront in his military attire. The judges did not mind. They, after hearing what were spelt out by the bench assistant on the facts of the cases, asked us to argue the case on behalf of the appellant. I argued and stressed the fact that, as a lawyer, I really believe in the independence of judiciary and impartiality of the court's decision despite the presence of military officer in his military dress, and that surely would not create an adverse effect or influence in the judges. I repeated that point several times. The judges, like dumb, simply listened without passing any remark or reaction. After recession for tea, the court assembled. To my relief, the officer appeared but without his military dress. How mischievously he had said to me: "now I have come in civil dress and be assured for independence of judiciary."

It was ex-part hearing. When we concluded our hearing, the judges looked so assuring. Usually the opposite party was rejoined. The judges said us that they need to read the serious materials we had submitted and had fixed the hearing for next day late after noon.

We were really tired and needed repose and rest. So, with the younger brother of Bhim Narayan we went to Hille. It was nice walk and very enjoyable evening. When we climbed Hille, a beautiful hue was spread out in the sky with magnificent view of the Himalayas and verdant hills. The ambience was really beautiful, peaceful and attractive. Hille was upcoming tourist spot at that time. We enjoyed the views to our heart's contents. As dinner was late, we strolled around Hille tiny Bazar with scattered homes.

We stopped to a teashop attended by two young girls with their grown up mother. They looked really beautiful, perhaps their beauty magnified by shivering candlelight. Over a cup of tea we had pleasant conversations with the damsels, of course at the cost of bachelor Surya. The girls were students of a middle school. They aspired for higher study despite constraints and wants they encountered. They were telling that they had to earn the family livelihood and meet cost of their education with the tiny tea-shop. But they brushed aside their vexing problems with sweet smiles. In fresh mood we returned to our lodge and had sound sleep. In the morning we had walked the captivatingly beautiful verdant hills of Hille. When we returned to our lodge for our brunch we found the girls waiting for us to hand over a letter in appreciation of our visit to their tea shop and sparing our time with them written in girlish sweaty languages. The girls, as they expressed in their letter, were really appreciative of our encouragement to study further.

Refreshed we returned to Dhunkuta. We went straight to the court. After a while two judges sat on the Bench. The judges with reddened faces told us that the court decided to uphold the lower court's verdict. The judges looked remorse the way they pronounced their decision in their halting tongues with faces ashamed.

With heavy heart, sadden and jolted with unexpected pronouncement from the judges we had returned to the Bhim Narayan's home where we stayed. The whole atmosphere looked forlorn and doomed. A pitiful heart-breaking wailing, the painful sighs and wheezing cries. Surya and myself were in helpless moments: silent spectator of a dreadful and tragic scene. After sometime the old man came to us. He looked as if he had no more tears to shed. He had been weeping past several months and now, at that particular dismal moment, he was tearless. As an elderly guardian he had to shoulder the responsibility to assure and assuage the rest of the family. He had come to us with one request to assure Bhim Narayan's wife with her infant children that justice would indeed prevail in the long run. How I acted to assuage a grieved and weeping lady, how we promised that we will do our utmost!

संजय थापाको 'मुक्त आकाशको खोजी' पनि कम पठनीय छैन।नख्खु जेल ब्रेकको कहानीमा आधारित यो किताब पढ्दाका प्रदिप नेपाल अहिले आफ्ना पुराना दिन संझिदा होलान् कि न होलान्।

I still can't figure out the transition point from that Pradeep Nepal to this Pradeep Nepal. This biography could be another popular novel.

राजा महेन्द्रको रक्तपिपासु सत्ता.....

King Mahendra's atrocities

How NC rebel were killed in Arghakhachi

� Moti Prasad Bhusal's hands and ears were cut

� Shamsher Khatri were killed with khukuri and gunshots

� Tikaram Sharma was made to walk, blinded and his head was crushed with stones

� Shamsher Bdr Khatri was beheaded and another rebel Dal Bdr Kshatri was made to carry the head and shown to people with a placard that read यो अराष्ट्रिय तत्व शमशेर खत्रीको टाउको हो ।


From a conversation at Nepal Democracy Google Group on Aug 14, 2005 ...

... combatants who met their fate 43-years ago in Arghakhachi.

14 Nepali Congress rebels were holed up in a school premise in Chorkote,Arghakhachi, when they were attacked by the security forces. The leader of the group, Shamsher Khatri, was carrying a small baby when he was attacked. He died immediately with the combination of gunshot wounds and khukri cuts.

Moti Prasad Bhusal, another rebel, was tied in a wooden pillar in the school premise. Then he was brutalized and his ears,and hands were cut, and he died of the excessive blood loss.

Tikaram Sharma Ghimire was made to walk to Tamghas. His eyes were already taken out.Before reaching to Tamghas,In Buka Khola, his head was crushed with stones.

A few days later, Badahakim Chandra Thakali exhumed the corpse of Shamsher Bdr Khatri, severed the head, and made one of the rebels, Dal Bdr Kshatri, to carry it all the way to Tamghas. In the villages, the head was shown to people, with a placard that proclaimed "this is the head of arashtriya tatwa Shamsher Khatri".
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I am often very surprised/shocked to realise how cruelly NC workers who raised arms against king Mahendra were killed. But even more shocking is the fact that no attempts were made after 2046 to investigate that past. A lot of those who killed NC workers were actually welcomed, and promoted during NC regime. Hard to find more ingrate leadership than NC's.

After Ashoj 18, Kantipur did a good job of introducing us with some of the forgotten fighters of the past who came to protest against the king in KTM. Most of them are living quite painfully and in poverty.I was quite surprised to read about Jogi Shah, the man who threw bomb at Mahendra in Janakpur along with Durgananda Jha, last year. I didn't even know he was alive.

I don't condone violence as a mean to attain political goal however lofty the goal is. Yet, we need to do everything in our capacity to identify and punish the culprits, we need to face the history and learn from it. Forget the past of 2017:I am yet to know if anyone was punished for the excesses committed during Rhitik Roshan Kanda when a lot of innocent Teraibasis were made victims of unusual communal hatred. And of course, we don't know if any one has been charged for September 1st riot in KTM when the Moslems were victimised and the mosque was raided by a mob.Our journalists have a job to do.

[The event in Arghakanchi is based on a report by Hem Raj Adhikari Shashtri in his book "Aajako Nepal"]

Nepeji, thanks for this effort. There is a misconception in Nepalese mind that king mahendra was a patriotic. We have to show that he was not. He was a pure mediavel minded autocrat who was also jealous of BP and other sons/daughters of people getting popular.

I haven't read the books mentioned in this thread. I will try to find. Thank you friends.

Let me clear misconceptions about BP too as you guys did very job regarding king. BP may be patriotic but he sold out other freedom fighters. There was a gal who was king Mahendra's spy which supposedly BP was dating. BP got busted through her. Then BP sold out Ganesh Man and other freedom fighters in the hands of Mahendra.

I hope for the peace.

peace out

People had lots of hopes and aspirations in 1990 when people finally succeed to bring the democracy. Do not underline the fact that Nepalese were betrayed by these poltiicans and they are the one who handed the power to King G.

Once stabbed back the party, I am not willing to trust them anymore. We need new leadership who are for the people so that we can bring back the democracy.

As I stand, I am not willing to comprimise with one inept and corrupt with another inept and corrupt.

peace out

......We need new leadership who are for the people so that we can bring back the democracy............

highfly, but how can new leadership get developed when we don't have democracy? To produce new leaders, don't we need freedom and open society? Or it will take a very long time. This king is trying hard to change whole of next generation into his GULAM. How do you think this can be averted?

Gautam B.

I hate to say this, but nepalese people seem not yet able to acknowledge and adopt full democracy. I even disagree that there would be improvement if they are given that kind of democracy. It is not about few people who are residing in outside of the country and have almost what they wanted.

Nepalese people always talk about good leadership, they think this one is good and elect him to the parliament but when he is there, these same people come up with their personal problems, ask job for their sons and daughters, they want roads pitched that goes through their village and I have seen, sometimes they even ask money. That's the kind of people are in majority in Nepal. Of course that shitheaded bastard MP, instead of telling the people that he can't fulfill their demands, rather disappears and after 5 years, it turns out that he is taking sips of whisky in his newly built bungalows.

If I was the MP, I could tell how I should have reacted instead of amassing the wealth of our nation but I can sense how ignorant average nepalese are who lead the leaders to those points instead of leader leading them, okay? So I would rather promote individualism instead of this freaking society where democracy rules but can never succeeds into its full form. To me, in democracy it is always those group of noisy people who gain the power coz they have nothing else to do.

Gautam B.,

We need new leadership to bring democracy. We need to admit the fact that king will not step down. He needs to be forced. Fisrt scenario will be maos winning the battle resulting in red state which will be devastating.

Other is marching sea of people to the palace. Numerous people will lose their life but army will give up and king will flee. But the leadership do not hold that capacity as nobody trusts them. Once stabbed back, the wound is still fresh.

In the current context, if the leaders wanna salvage some pride, they should try to clean themselves. This is done by removing all the corrupt from the party. Madav Nepal is saying he admits his mistake but he is not saying anything about how he gurantees people that the mistakes will not be repeated.

Giriaj is saying king should keep his mouth shut. It seems he wants to negotiate with king. Kings power lies in these bafoons. Untill and unless these stupid bafoons are removed from power structure king will be in power.


You said its gonna take long time. Ya its seems it will take hella long time. May be atleast old fart Girija is dead.

Seeing all these, I think the best thing is try to get king under constitution first. This will be perectly legitamate demand. King cannot defend for this as he is been claiming to be democratic. Republican as it is getting rid of king is not practical in my opinion. It will just prolong the civil war.

nepesahila ,

You gotta look at the facts. What is the educaion level of majority of Nepalese??? This is the big issue. Just think aout of this, Deuba told the public that he has a magic stick to bring the peace in Nepal. So whom they are playing with??

People have not realized what is democracy due to lack of education. So the transition should be slow but for sure so that it cannot be taken away by the royal or the maoists or even the poltical leaders.

My 2 pisa.

peace out

Highfly,

"You gotta look at the facts. What is the educaion level of majority of Nepalese??? This is the big issue. Just think aout of this, Deuba told the public that he has a magic stick to bring the peace in Nepal. So whom they are playing with??"

So in your own words, Nepalese are even more illerate and unconsious to have that kind of man elect into the parliament and make him a PM.
They are playing because they know how Nepalese people are.

"People have not realized what is democracy due to lack of education."

How is it possible to make nepalese politically consious and educated in this kind of environment where king is banning people from even to hear news on the national level?
To me, it is a kind of atrocity, not just the violation of freedom of speech or free press.

Nice thread guys.(y)

nepesahila,

Let me clear one thing. I am for free society. I beleive in a mixed economy capitalism and socialism.

The fight for democracy has always been with the king. It will be successful only when the leaders are sincere. I like the free media. But I also do not like the yellow journalism. I think people should be held accountable for yellow journalism.

The maoists is not the subsititute for the king. The way the things are taking turn, it seems the only possible way king might step down is maosits coming to power which will even be more devastating.

As I have stressed several times, in my opinion, the possible solution is three way comprimise. But nobody is going for it because every group has a dark past.

I did not beleive public realize democracy in 1990s. It was a tranistion phase. Still it was slowly moving to democracy until maos chose the gun. My analogy is simply because Nepal was opening up for businesses. This would have resulted in tough quality control matters. There was gross feeling against corruption and ineptness. This would have brought the framework to control the corrupt.

But the situation now is totally differnt. Inept and corrupt polticians handed the power to the king. There is maoists running after with a gun. To bring back democracy, I agin strees on strong leadership. The one people trust. So that the king feel pressure. As I said, in my opinion, the power of king lies in these corrupt and inept politcians.

This was regarding second part of issue you raised. Now going back to the first part you still gotta know the facts. I will not say people are stupid, but unfortunatley they are ignorant.

Let me tell you one incident. This old lady brought her husband to the Bir Hospital for check up. But even this old lady was sick. SHe could not walk properly. When approached by the doctor she said she did not had good food because she is poor.

But the truth, she was not only having a nutrious diet but she had a cancer in her leg and required immidiate surgery so that the cancer will not spread. The first priority of the people is food, shelter, and safety. They are still in the lowest level in Maslow's hiearchay of needs. Leaders promies these people with food, shleter, education and what not to get elected. In some cases as giriaja use the power of gun to get elected.

So there is lotta room for manipualtion. So, I am helpless to say that we will have to depend upon strong leadership so these issues are tackled.

Now my analogy in current power tussle.

Extreme Right wing -- King

Extreemet Left wing --- Maoists

There is a vaucm in the middle. We need strong democartic force to fill that vaccum. Extreme right wing cannot be replaced by extreme left wing. International examples are plenty. Afgainstahn, Iran but not Nepal.

peace out

राजा महेन्द्रको रक्तपिपासु सत्ता.....

King Mahendra's atrocities

How NC rebel were killed in Arghakhachi

�EMoti Prasad Bhusal's hands and ears were cut

�EShamsher Khatri were killed with khukuri and gunshots

�ETikaram Sharma was made to walk, blinded and his head was crushed with stones

�EShamsher Bdr Khatri was beheaded and another rebel Dal Bdr Kshatri was made to carry the head and shown to people with a placard that read यो अराष्ट्रिय तत्व शमशेर खत्रीको टाउको हो ।

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आबुई No comment.
लामो लागेर पढेकै छैन अरु त। पढ्छु जाँगर चलेसी।

यिनै हुन् सहिदको सपना कुल्चिने।
- http://www.nepaljapan.com/gallery/DC/2005/December/9-2.htm

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बि. पि. को फोटुमा माल्यार्पण गरेसी लोकतन्त्राय नम: भयो।
सुनपानी छर्कम् ल, गरेको पापजति पखालिन्छ सबैको।

Power corrupts *but* absolute power corrupts absolutely. Case in point : all the examples mentioned on this thread so far.

Happy snowday!

:)

Highfly,

When I said the country needs to be republic, I didn't mean Maoists should take over. I was just stating the absolute contitions for full democracy to occur. So far I am just upto reducing the King's power and having constitutional monarchy.

As far as studying facts are concerned, well I havent' done it, but experiencing practically through the incidents that occur in Nepal. I still agree with what I stated earlier.

You probably have heard about the femine in Dolpa 7/8 years ago. Around 400 people died of it during that time. But you know what, after three years of continuous food supply by the government, it was discovered that femine occured mostly because of them people.

Yea, first year there was no rain and couldn't produce any food. But the second year onwards, they seemed to have convinced that even if they don't have any food the government is gonna feed them so they stopped harvesting. May be it wasn't written anywhere but a pilot who was supplying the food told me this.

Why go that far, take Hritik Roshan case, Madhuri Dixit case, had there been not this kind of democracy, none of nepalese would have died in the heart of the country. Take all those parties mass meetings, almost all of them end up with some violent acts of vandalizing public and private properties.