Haribhakta Dhakal, a devotee of Kavre, spends a long time looking at two pictures stuck together on the wall of his house in Panchkhal. The shared pain of both these characters, who are only in memory, has not stopped haunting him to this day. It is a long time since not only Haribhakta, but also his family stopped smiling.

One of the two pictures on the wall was of Ram Bahadur Dhakal, who faced social scorn and was deemed ‘untouchable’ for marrying Batuli Mijar in 2018. Haribhakta is the son of Ram Bahadur and Batuli. The other picture that makes Haribhakta cringe is of his son Ajit. 

Ajit Mijar, the grandson of Ram Bahadur, who was deemed ‘untouchable’ by society, married a girl from the Parajuli clan of Kavre Jyamdi in 2073 BS. Ajit, who was trapped in the caste system, not only lost his love, but also his life. Ajit’s body has been in the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu for 9 years. Ajit’s family has stopped celebrating festivals and festivals for 9 years.

Like other years, Haribhakta’s family felt sad to see the red foreheads of the villagers during Dashain this year. Haribhakta's heart said, 'What's the point of burning it?' Ajit's mother Kali Mijar said with a sigh, 'It's gone. If only it had been burned, it would have been a caste.' However, Haribhakta is heartbroken when he thinks of those who killed his son by considering love a crime. And he strengthens his heart and says, 'I will not bring him out until I get justice.'

After not getting justice from the Dhading District Court and the High Court, Haribhakta has been moving to the Supreme Court for the past 2 years. The Supreme Court is setting a date. The last time the date was set for Bhadra 27. However, the work came to a standstill after the Supreme Court itself was burned during the Gen-G protest. 'When I went, they were working under a tent. They have asked me to come back in a month,' says Haribhakta. 

Haribhakta still worries that his son will suddenly appear in the courtyard. He says, ‘On Asad 29, 2079, he left home after asking for a hundred rupees from his mother. We kept waiting for him to come. But, he did not come,’ Haribhakta recalls that fateful day.

Ajit had left home to hear the SLC results. Suddenly, Ajit’s sister (uncle’s daughter) called Haribhakta from Bhaktapur and told him, ‘Brother has brought a girl.’ Ajit and a girl from the Parajuli clan fell in love in Sarvamangala, Panchkhal, in 2071 BS. On Asad 25, 2073 BS, they got married in an inter-caste love marriage.

Fearing family, village and society, they ran away and reached Ajit’s sister Samjhana Purkoti’s house in Bhaktapur. When the girl’s family found out, they started pressuring Ajit’s family with threats. On the 27th, the girl’s father and relatives went to the Panchkhal area police station. After appearing at the police office, a discussion was held between the relatives of both sides in the presence of the police.

‘They were taken to the municipality with the intention of getting them married. However, when they were brought to the municipality, the girl’s sister beat her sister and broke her grandson,’ says Haribhakta. The girl’s sister had threatened Ajit at that time, ‘Even if I spend 6-7 lakhs, I will not let you stand on the ground.’

Both were separated because they were not old enough for marriage. Ajit and the girl were both 18 years old. Both Ajit and the girl were crying when they were separated. ‘They did not want to be separated. Two people lifted the girl and put her on a bike. Then they forcibly took her to Kathmandu,’ says Haribhakta. The girl was taken to her aunt’s house in Kathmandu. She had called Ajit and told him, ‘She will come anyway.’ Ajit had told her at home, ‘She will come. Shall I go and get her?’ Haribhakta said, ‘You stay at home. Don't move left or right.' 

On Asad 28, a person from an unknown number threatened Ajit and his mother, saying 'I am a lawyer'. Investigation revealed that he was a person named Kanhaiya Karmacharya. He had threatened the mother and son over the phone to 'jail Ajit in a rape case'. According to Haribhakta, Ajit had also had an argument with Kanhaiya on the phone. Kanhaiya's name is also mentioned in the statement given by the girl in Dhading. According to the girl's statement, Kanhaiya had looked at her hand and said, 'Your Ajit will die in three or four days.' 

On the evening of the 28th, Ajit left Tamaghat. The girl's relatives took him around on a bike. Then they left without saying anything. On Asad 29, around 1 pm, Ajit asked his mother for 100 rupees to buy a mobile charger. He left home that day and did not return in the evening. When he called her mobile, the bell rang inside the house. Ajit had also left his mobile phone at home. ‘He must have gone to his friend’s,’ the family thought. When Ajit did not return for three days, they started panicking. On 1st July, Ajit’s friend showed Haribhakta a photo in Tamaghat. Haribhakta felt as if he had fallen off a cliff when he identified the body hanging in the Dhading suburb as ‘his son’. The Haribhakta couple still cannot sleep at night remembering that day.

After getting a letter from Panchkhal Police Station to ‘see their son’s body’, they left for Dhading at 10 pm. When they reached Dhading at 7 am, the Area Police Office, Gajuri, had already buried Ajit’s body. However, if an abandoned body is found, there is a provision to keep it for identification for 7 days. However, the then Police Inspector of Gajuri, Prakash Jagebu (Limbu), said that the body was buried ‘because the body could not be identified’. They also showed the post-mortem report. The postmortem report stated that he committed suicide by hanging himself after consuming alcohol.

Haribhakta with his wife.

The police were reluctant to tell the Haribhakta family, saying, "The body has been cut up, it cannot be excavated." When the Ajit family refused to excavate, the police made another excuse, saying, "It is buried five/six feet deep. A JCB should be brought in to dig it out. It costs money." The police were forced to do so after the Ajit family refused to pay money and dig it out. "They said it was buried five/six feet deep. However, when they turned over a stone and dug it out, it came out. It was said to be a fracture. However, the shirt button of the body was not even unbuttoned. There is a tattoo with the name Ajit on his wrist. His hair has fallen out. His face is black," recalls Haribhakta. "How can the police bury it directly without issuing a single notice?"

Dr. of Gajuri Health Center, who was involved in the postmortem at that time, Amrita Shrestha had admitted in the District Court, Dhading that she had ‘written the post-mortem report in a hurry’. That fake report was also not investigated. The police report states that the body was shriveled and leaning on the lower part of the abdomen. How is it possible to commit suicide by hanging after leaning down? This is also an unanswered question.

‘The report states that a noose was placed on the tarpaulin rope, but the body was found wrapped in the tarpaulin during the excavation,’ says Haribhakta. Even the evidence sample sent to the Central Police Forensic Science Laboratory Fingerprint Division does not have the tarpaulin rope.

Ajit had been missing since 2 pm, it takes five hours to travel by car from his house to the place where he was hanged, but the locals had seen the body on the morning of the 30th. How did Ajit, who had no money in his pocket, reach there so quickly and hang himself? While there is a police station nearby. The police did not consider it necessary to investigate this either. Eyewitnesses to the incident also considered it suspicious.

During the on-site investigation conducted by Dalit civil society on 23, 24 and 25 August, the hotel manager there said, ‘It was tied in three places or one or two places. The rope was not stretched. We saw it, if we had seen him when he was about to die, we would have saved him. Did he die himself or was he killed by someone? We don’t know. In my opinion, it seems that he was killed and brought from somewhere else and hung. There were no flies on the body. Then the police took him away. The rope was also made of tarpaulin, it was not stretched. How does a person die like that?’ After the District Police Office, Dhading refused to register a complaint, it was finally registered after 17 days after the Dalit Commission, Dalit rights activists, human rights activists and others went.

When the body was taken to the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, it was not allowed to be taken inside. It was allowed to be taken inside only after pressure from the authorities. Since then, Ajit’s body has been inside the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital.

On 6 Asoj 073, the District Court, Dhading ordered the release of defendants Tek Bahadur Parajuli and Samjhana Parajuli (the girl's sister) on a bail of 25,000 and Bhoj Bahadur to be sent to prison. On 28 Pus 073, the High Court, Patan ordered the release of Bhoj Bahadur Parajuli (the girl's father) on a bail of 25,000. However, no investigation was conducted against Bhoj Bahadur's friend Kanhaiya Karmacharya, who was seen as a suspicious role in the incident.

According to Haribhakta, even the complaint that he should be made a defendant was not registered. While he himself had repeatedly threatened Ajit and Ajit's mother over the phone. He had predicted that 'Ajit would die' by looking at the girl's hand. Kanhaiya had also called on his mobile on the day Ajit disappeared. 

After public pressure, the Law, Justice and Human Rights Committee of the Parliament had formed an investigation sub-committee led by Kamala Dong, an MP from Kavre. After the on-site study, the subcommittee prepared a report that the police had weakened the case due to financial inducements, destroyed evidence, and acted negligently in the post-mortem examination. 

As pressure mounted, an investigation committee was formed on 6 Magh 2073 under the coordination of the then Youth and Sports Minister Daljit Shripali. That committee also submitted a report that blamed the Parajuli family for the murder. However, it was not heard either. Based on that report, the government had given a compensation of Rs 1 million to the Mijar family.

Advocate Mohan Sah (Shankar), who has been fighting Ajit's case since the beginning, says that there was an unnatural situation in this case even before the incident happened. 'It is seen that the court, while making its decision, has made its decision based only on the evidence without analyzing why it was unnatural. How to prove some evidence depends on the discretion of the judge. The judicial system gives the judge the right to exercise discretion. Even when exercising discretion, it is understood that the situation should have been considered, but it was not done,' says Sah. 

It is unnatural for a suspicious person to call repeatedly even two days before the deceased's death, to go to another district the next day and find the body dead, to return such an abandoned body without even a week, to prepare a false post-mortem report, to refuse to give it to the deceased's family when they go to collect the body, to give the same report that has been prepared without conducting a post-mortem after preparing a false post-mortem report, Sah finds it unnatural.

'Even when going to court, it was easy to assume that this was not a simple death, but a death due to duty. The government prosecutor also twisted the case and took it to court by not making the person who was contacted a day before the death a defendant, saying that it was only a suicide,' says Sah. 'The court ruled that whatever the government prosecutor took, he committed suicide without analyzing anything. And in that decision, the right to exercise discretion has been misused.'

It was alleged that acid was immediately applied to the deceased's face. It was necessary to test whether acid had been applied to that face. On that basis, Sah filed a demand in the High Court for an acid test. The court also ordered it. However, Sah complains that the testing body used threatening language and sent it without testing. After the high court also did not rule in favor of the victim, the case has reached the Supreme Court. Haribhakta has not yet given up hope of getting justice. 

Oppression of Dalits due to the caste system, forced exclusion from society for falling in love, and cases of death as a gift continue to occur in Nepal. On 2077 Jestha 10, 2077, when 6 people, including Nawaraj BK, were killed for falling in love in Chaurjahari Municipality, Sotigaun, Rukum West, Haribhakta felt extremely sad. He kept remembering his son.