March 21st, 2006
Tortured at Police HQ, Arrested at Media House
In a bizarre case, policemen arrested a justice-seeking policeman from the library of Kantipur Publications



At around 4:00pm, police sub-inspector Hum Bahadur Bagale entered Kantipur Publications office in an appearance that would have forced many to take him as a mad man. Half of his hair was shaved and his police shirt and trousers muddy.

Reporters from Kantipur and The Kathmandu Post daily talked with him after he claimed that he had been badly tortured after being dismissed from service accusing him of false charges. He sounded true with the appearance.

He asked for justice and told the repoters that he was beaten and dipped into the pond at the police headquarters after being handed over the letter of dismissal (I read the copy of it and it accused him of robbing 27-tola gold). It said he would not be eligible to hold any government post in future.

The interview was disrupted as a group of policemen entered the premises of the publication looking for him and dragged him out of the library into a police van and took him away. Kantipur Television camera has filmed all this. The taxi driver, who brought him to the publications office from Naxal where the headquarters is situated, is being waited by two policemen outside the office.