SC orders govt to form probe committee

The Supreme Court on Monday ordered the government to form an all-powerful probe committee to investigate the whereabouts of detainee Rajendra Prasad Dhakal, Bipin Bhandari and Dil Bahadur Rai.

Taking up separate habeas corpus petitions filed on behalf of Dhakal, Bhandari and Rai, Justices Khil Raj Regmi and Kalyan Shrestha further ordered that the committee comprise an appellate court judge, a representative from Nepal Bar Association (NBA) and a joint attorney general from the Office of the Attorney General. The committee has been asked to submit its report to the court within three months.

This is the first time the apex court has ordered formation of such a probe committee to seek the whereabouts of disappeared people.

Dhakal, the then President of Gorkha NBA Unit, has gone missing for the last nine years. Security forces had reportedly arrested Dhakal from Abukhaireni, Tanahun district. Similarly, the whereabouts of Maoist student leaders Bhandari and Rai is unknown since their arrest from Chabahil, Kathmandu, in 2001.