The Metropolitan Police Range, Jawalakhel arrested Bimala Lama from Man Bhawan on Wednesday on the charge of torturing Kalli Kumari BK and feeding her of feeding human excreta, accusing her for practicing ‘witchcraft’. Yagya Prasad Adhikari, head of protection and monitoring at National Human Rights Commission, said that the case demanded the highest action, as it violated human, women and Dalit rights.

Kantipur Report
Kathmandu, June 11 - Bimala Lama, the main accused in a case of feeding human excreta to Kalli Kumari B.K., a Dalit woman, on March 20, has been arrested by the Metropolitan Police Range, Lalitpur. B.K., a resident of Pyutar in Lalitpur district, was beaten up and forcefully fed excreta in public after being accused of practicing witchcraft on Lama, her daughter and other villagers.

Superintendent of Police Kedarman Singh Bhandari said Lama was arrested from Man Bhawan. She had been absconding since the incident. Lama has also been charged with torturing the victim. Bhandari said three people were arrested earlier in connection with the incident, while three more are still at large.

Lama was the head-mistress of Gadhibhanjyang Primary School in the locality and had brutally thrashed B.K. accusing her of witchcraft. While B.K. had filed a case at the local police office on March 23, the police say they were met by obstructing villagers when they went to arrest the accused.

B.K. was rescued by various human rights agencies and was sheltered at Maiti Nepal for several weeks since the incident. She has now returned to the village.

Yagya Prasad Adhikari, head of protection and monitoring at National Human Rights Commission, said that the case demanded the highest action, as it violated human, women and Dalit rights. He said though over a dozen such cases have been reported, lack of access to rural areas meant incidents were not reported at all. He said agencies have to follow due process of law in the prosecution of Lama.

Source: www.ekantipur.com, Posted on: 2009-06-10 22:07:49 (Server Time)

Kalli Kumari’s tormentor held

Laxmi Maharjan
The Metropolitan Police Range, Jawalakhel arrested Bimala Lama from Man Bhawan on Wednesday on the charge of torturing Kalli Kumari BK for practicing ‘witchcraft’. Lama had forced BK to eat her own stool.

“I was fallen prey to a conspiracy of my own maternal uncle”, said Bimala Lama declining the charge. She further said that her uncle fuelled the case to fulfill his vested political interest since they two belong to different political parties.

Lama (23), a teacher at Gadi Bhanjhyang Primary school, of Pyutar VDC Lalitpur shared that she had reached a verbal agreement with the victim and her kin to resolve the dispute.”We came up with a plan to force Kalli to eat her own stool but we never did that in practice”, claimed Lama. However, the prime accused accepted that they had manhandled and assault BK verbally.

Lama said that she committed the crime when a witch doctor at Chabahil told her that Kalli was harming her by black magic. She had visited the witch doctor following a long illness. Lama shared that she no longer believed on the witchcraft.

Lama remembered an event during the insurgency period when the villagers has thrown Kalli into the river as most of them took Kalli for a ‘witch’. She further said she was unknown about the human rights and the law in the country.

Police arrested her when she had been to give in in front of the Chief District Officer, Kathmandu she claimed. Basanta Bahadur Kunwar, DSP at Metropolitan Police Range in Jawalakhel informed that they had arrested her from Man Bhawan at 11.30 am. “We will produce her at the CDO office and district court on Thursday”, he said adding that they were filing a case against Lama on the charge of public offence and torture.

Source: The Himalayn Times Daily

News collections provided by:
J B Biswokarma
Journalist & Executive Member
Jagaran Media Center, Kathmandu, Nepal