‘VULNERABLE SHOULD BE
RELOCATED AND THEIR PRIVACY PROTECTED’
Published:
November 14, 2019 8:22 am On: Nepal
HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE
Kathmandu,
November 13
Reports
of murder accused Mohammad Aftab Alam’s men using threat, coercion and
intimidation to make victims retract their statements highlight the need for a
comprehensive law to protect the rights of victims and witnesses.
Alam
faces charges of throwing 19 people, including Rautahat residents Oshi Akhtar
and Trilok Pratap Singh, who were injured in bomb blast alive into a nearby
brick kiln in Rautahat’s Rajpur Farhadwa on the eve of 2008 Constituent
Assembly elections.
Yesterday,
Gaurishankar Chamar, who said he was injured in the same blast and was treated
in India after the incident, told media outlets that he was kidnapped by Alam’s
men and forced to retract his statement.
Oshi
Akhtar’s wife, Amana Khatun, recently was forced to file an application in
Rautahat District Court saying that her husband had gone to a foreign country
for employment before the blast and he had not returned home since then.
Talking
to THT, a senior advocate, who specialises in criminal law,
rued lack of adequate laws to protect crime victims and witnesses, forcing them
to often retract their statements or refuse to depose against criminals.
“In the
USA, witnesses are often moved to other states and their and their family
members’ names are changed to protect them from criminals who could target them
for deposing against them,” the lawyer said.
He added
that during Maoist conflict a Scandinavian country had taken a Nepali citizen,
who was a witness to a murder committed by Maoist rebels. The country who
offered the Nepali witness its passport said it would give him a changed name
to protect him from those who could pose threat to him and if Nepali
authorities wanted to cross examine him they could do so through video
conference.
Lawyers
said similar measures needed to be adopted in Nepal to protect victims and
witnesses.
There is
no mechanism in Nepal to provide security to witnesses and people don’t believe
that the government will be able to provide them security.
Chairperson
of Constitutional Lawyers’ Forum Raju Prasad Chapagai said victims, who were
also witnesses, had constitutional right to get justice but due to lack of
adequate legal mechanisms and guidelines they had not been able to enjoy their
constitutional rights. “Often victims and witnesses of serious crimes,
including organised crime and rape, are threatened and intimidated. There are
real and perceived threats against them and the state must provide security to
these victims,” he added.
A
comprehensive law to protect victims and witnesses is yet to be enacted.
Chapagai
said the government should have an ad hoc mechanism to provide security to
victims such as Amana Khatun and Gaurishankar till it adopted comprehensive
measures to deal with the security threat that victims and witnesses faced
across the country. “If victims of crime face security threat, they should
be relocated and their privacy should be protected. If they need financial
help, the government must be ready to provide it,” he argued.
Spokesperson
for the Office of the Attorney General Sanjeeb Raj Regmi said there was need to
enact a comprehensive law to protect victims and witnesses. “At present we have
Crime Victim Protection Act, but that appears to deal only with victims and not
witnesses. The support measures that this act talks of also indicate such
measures are only for temporary period, but a victim may face threat for long
time,” he added.
He said
the Government of Nepal needed to talk to Indian authorities to protect
Gaurishankar Chamar, as he is an Indian citizen. Rautahat Superintendent
of Police Bhupendra Khatri said it was a sensitive case and his office was
discussing plans to provide security to victims and witnesses of the murder
case. He said police were concerned about the security of Amana Khatun and
Gaurishankar Chamar and would do the needful.
A version
of this article appears in print on November 14, 2019 of The Himalayan Times.
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