Nepal Police arrested yet another murder convict of journalist Dekendra Thapa from Dailekh on February 6. Dailekh district lies in Karnali Province of Nepal. Dailekh district court had delivered a verdict on December 7, 2014 to arrest nine perpetrators involved in the murder of journalist Thapa, among which, five were arrested. Among those arrested, two- Hari Lal Pun and Jay Bahadur Shahi-had fled before completing jail term, according to the police sources*. Recently in December 2020, Pun was arrested from his residence. Again on February 6, Shahi was arrested from Mahabu Rural Municipality of Dailekh. Shahi has been sent to the district jail for serving his remaining jail term of five months. It has already been 16 years since Thapa was murdered but three murder convicts have been still absconding. Freedom Forum welcomes the police initiative to nab the absconded one in murder of journalist Thapa. FF believes though late, it helps reduce long pending impunity relating to crimes against journalists and ensure justice to the families of the murdered journalists. Together more attention is required to solve the pending cases relating to journalists. For more information, Freedom Forum monitoring@freedomforum.org.np (*Note: Earlier in FF’s report it was mistakenly mentioned that Shahi had completed his jail term. Consider amendment: Ed.)
Freedom Forum is a prominent non-governmental organization in Nepal dedicated to institutionalizing democracy, protecting and promoting human rights, press freedom, freedom of expression, right to information, promoting audit accountability, open and accountable budget, public finance reforms, citizen engagement in public finance management and citizen participation in audit. Established in February 2005, the organization emerged in response to the political turmoil following Former King Gyanendra’s coup dated February 1, 2005, which imposed severe restrictions on media and democratic rights. A group of media professionals, legal experts, and academics founded Freedom Forum to safeguard Nepal’s hard-earned democratic freedoms during this repressive period.
