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KATHMANDU, Jan 8: While people across the country are demanding fair investigations into the mysterious death of Saraswati Subedi, who was found hanging at her landlord´s house at Anamnagar, and other cases of violence against women, a re-postmortem has confirmed that she died by hanging.
However, whether she was hanged by others or it was a suicide remains unconfirmed.
Talking to Republica on Monday, Inspector General of Police Kuber Singh Rana said that the re-postmortem report has confirmed death by hanging, though he did not like to term it either a suicide or a murder.
“Media was very much concerned why it took an entire two days to publicize the re-postmortem report. In fact, the time was genuinely needed due to many technical problems and the many specific tests,” Rana said. “I can now report to you that the death was by hanging and further investigation will disclose the full truth.”
Sapana Pradhan Malla, senior advocate and member of the investigation committee formed last week at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai to monitor the investigation of the cases, commented that a lot of other substantial evidence had now emerged for establishing whether or not she was hanged. She added that the committee has been giving directions to the police to carry out speedy and fair investigations. “There are so many challenges in our system that delay things. So it is taking a longer time to get the results,” she said.
According to Malla, three airport staffers involved in the robbery and rape case of Sita Rai are already behind bars while the case of Chhorimaiya Maharjan is also making progress.”We are receiving updates from the police every day regarding the cases,” Malla added.
Earlier, a postmortem on Subedi had confirmed the death as suicide. Following Prime Minister Bhattarai´s directive last Sunday to re-investigate the case, a re-postmortem was carried out two days ago.
Meanwhile, expressing utter dissatisfaction with the performance of the monitoring committee and the government, dozens of youths who have been a regular part of the Occupy Baluwatar campaign said the investigation of the cases has been very slow.
Talking to Republica, youth volunteer Sumina Karki said the public has every right to know every bit of development in the investigation but the culture of secrecy is so prevalent among the bodies involved. “Things should be kept transparent unless there are some genuine reasons for keeping developments secret.
The people have the right to information, and, moreover, thousands are voluntarily gathering at Baluwatar just to ensure that the investigations are fair. The authorities should not discourage them,” she said adding that the occupy movement also needs to change strategy in order to make it more effective.
The protest against gender-based violence, later termed ´Occupy Baluwatar Movement´, started 10 days ago, demanding justice for Subedi of Dhading and Rai of Bhojpur, among several other similar cases of violence against women.
The movement has gained solidarity from all quarters of society, including media persons, film actors, schools, colleges and social organizations.
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