SC order to produce Bagale before court in person



Kantipur Report


KATHMANDU, March 26 - The Supreme Court (SC) has ordered government authorities to produce recently dismissed Sub-Inspector of Police, Hom Bahadur Bagale, in person before the court by 10 a.m. Tuesday (March 28).

Acting upon a habeas corpus writ petition filed on behalf of Bagale, a single bench of SC Justice Rajendra Prasad Koirala issued the order Sunday afternoon, reported our correspondent Kiran Chapagain from court premises.

The apex court has also sought a written clarification from the defendants of the case- the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Police Headquarters and the Kathmandu District Police Office- explaining why Bagale has been detained.

Bagale was arrested by police from the premises of Kantipur Piblications on March 21 while briefing journalists about how he was "thrashed, plunged into dirty water and the top of his head forcibly shaved off at the police headquarters" before being handed the termination letter the same day.

Later, officials at the Kathmandu District Police Office (DPO) said Bagale was being investigated under the Public Offence Act for using "abusive language" against the police organisation.

Bagale has also claimed that he was arbitrarily arrested and tortured by his seniors in November 2002 and has been receiving countless of death threats since then. He filed two torture cases against some senior police officers while still in service. The cases are reportedly currently pending at the Patan Appellate Court and the SC separately.

On March 23, the Kathmandu District Court remanded Bagale into 10 days of judicial custody. Officials at the Kathmandu DPO have barred journalists and rights activists from meeting Bagale since he was arrested and kept there.

“I was beaten up and abused so bad at Police Headquarters,” tells Hom Bahadur Bagale, a sub-inspector of Nepal police. He entered the Kantipur Complex bruised and battered all over his body and half his head shaven “forcefully”, in uniform on Tuesday afternoon, seeking refuge.

He showed the media persons, present at the complex, his scars and scratches, which he claimed were signs of police abuse at the headquarters. He also claimed that police forcefully shaved half his head to humiliate him.
“I have been harassed and punished by police authorities for speaking against the irregularities of my seniors,” he said.
He claimed that he was beaten and thrown into a pond inside police headquarters when he went to inquire about his resignation. “Instead, they gave me a dismissal letter stripping me of my pension,” he said.
Immediately, as one of the journalists called police headquarters to inquire about his claims, in a dramatic move that followed, a group of policemen in uniform entered Kantipur Complex.
Hom Bahadur Bagale is arrested by police and forcibly removed from the offices of Kantipur Publications. He was being interviewed by Kantipur journalists about his role as the victim of police brutality, when the police broke into the room, apprehended him, and took him away in a van parked outside Kantipur premises.
Meanwhile, a press release issued by the Secretariat of the Inspector General of Police, same evening, refuted the claims made by sub-inspector Bagale saying that the man is a fraud. It said Bagale had allegedly failed to return gold he had taken from former DSP Khadga Singh Gurung. So, Bagale was subjected to departmental action, it said.

Earlier, Bagale had filed a case at Kathmandu District Court for compensation for torture. He has accused police officers of torturing him while in detention at Hanuman Dhoka Police Office.