The family of Chetnath Phuyal of Pyauli, Arun Rural Municipality-3, Bhojpur, had to face an unimaginable lightning strike in Asad 2074. After the mysterious deaths of two of Chetnath's three children and the son of their neighbor Rabindra Sapkota, Chetnath's family was forced to relocate.

Chetnath left the ripening crops in the fields. He sold his fancy shop. He locked the house. He left the village with his family on 29 Asoj 2074 BS. ‘After the death of his 14-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son, he could not live in the village,’ says Chetnath. His family now lives in Halgada, Itahari. Chetnath has endured many hardships to start a new life from scratch in a new place and environment.  

The 45-year-old has been working in a hardware shop in Itahari for the past 6 years. His wife has been suffering from mental health problems since the incident. ‘Everything was fine then, he was running his own business in the village and his family and life were going well, whence this lightning strike came upon us,’ he said. 

What was the incident?

Chetnath’s daughter Sushma and son Pradeep and neighbor Rabindra’s 14-year-old son Ranjeev had left home to play on 20 Asaj 2074 BS. But they did not return until evening. The family and villagers searched everywhere at night and the next day, in streams, ponds, bushes, and cliffs, but they were not found. Two days later, all three were found drowned in the pond of Toran Karki in Marengdanda.

Sushma was not wearing slippers. The pond is about a hundred meters away from Chetnath's house. The forensic report of the BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences in Dharan mentioned that food was found in Pradeep's throat and chewing gum was found in the throats of Sushma and Ranjeev. The report states that no injuries, scars, or poison were found on them. 

Even after eight years and five months of the incident, the cause of the children's death and the culprits have not been found. Despite repeated investigations by teams from the local police, regional police, the police central office, and the Criminal Investigation Department, no conclusion has been reached. Pushkar Karki, the then chief of the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of the police, says, “At that time, nothing like that could be revealed during the tests, and it was said that the investigation would proceed if more evidence was found.” When Kantipur followed up in November 2076, the then DSP of the District Police Office, Bhojpur, Nar Bahadur Salami, revealed that the then Regional Investigation Bureau had written to him before he arrived that the evidence for the ‘diatom test’ had been destroyed. The BP Koirala Health Institute, the hospital where the body was postmortem, had stated that the investigation was complicated due to the lack of technology for the ‘diatom test.’ After the police investigation team found that the test was possible in India, the Bhojpur police sent a letter to the Regional Investigation Bureau. But the bureau replied to the Bhojpur police that ‘diatom test evidence is automatically destroyed after three months, so it cannot be done.’ According to forensic medicine, an element called ‘diatom’ is found in the water of ponds, lakes, rivers, canals, and canals. If someone suddenly drowns, water can enter the lungs through the nose and mouth at once, blocking blood circulation and causing death. In this process, the 'diatom' of the pond water reaches the body of the deceased. If the 'diatom' found in the water of the pond is not found in the body of the deceased, there is a strong possibility that he was murdered and thrown away.

The victim's family complains that the police, administration and investigation officials did not take the incident seriously from the beginning, which has led to inconclusive results. Chetnath says that since the incident occurred on the eve of local elections, political party leaders and village leaders forced them to take oaths and pay their respects. A year after the incident, the pond has been filled and a garden has been made.

The victim had met the then President Bidya Devi Bhandari, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, Home Minister Janardan Sharma, Chief Minister of Province 1 (currently Koshi Province) Sherdhan Rai, the security chief and stakeholders, demanding to find out the cause and culprits of the incident. A struggle committee was formed in Pyauli and a phased movement was launched. The victim's family has not received any written information about the postmortem and other reports. 'We did not even get the postmortem report, during the investigation, they said that he died from chewing gum and food stuck in his throat. How can we believe it?' Chetnath says, 'Nothing was found in the pond and around until the previous day, the body was suddenly found the next day, the child's watch had not been wet, there was no water in his stomach. His head was submerged, the hair on his back was not wet.' 

The local level election was scheduled for 14 Ashad 2074. Since it is also the commercial and administrative center of the rural municipality, the Nepal Army, Nepal Police and Armed Police were deployed in Pyauli at that time for election security. A temporary army barracks was set up in the Red Cross building in Pyauli for local election security. According to locals, Pradeep and Ranjeev were last seen near the barracks. 

Former MP from Bhojpur, Kumarilaxmi Rai, stated that the dog taken for investigation was dragged when it tried to enter the army barracks. After the investigation was not released for a year after the incident, then MP Sudan Kirati drew the government's attention to the matter in the House of Representatives in Asad 2075. The victim and locals had claimed that it was a planned 'murder' and demanded a fair investigation and that the family should receive relief. However, the victim's family says that the investigating agency ignored them. 'If only they could find out why he drowned, his soul would have found peace,' says Chetnath, 'but let it be written down.' 

Chetnath has not yet paid the debt he incurred while taking the body to Dharan for a post-mortem in the hope of finding out the real cause of the incident, returning after receiving condolences, agitating for pressure through the Sangharsh Samiti, and visiting Bhojpur district headquarters, Biratnagar, and Kathmandu demanding a fair investigation. 'A total of Rs 5-6 lakh was spent, and how much has not been paid yet,' he said. 

Rabindra Sapkota also says that the cause of his son's death and the culprits should be found out. He is an agricultural extension officer in Arun rural municipality. He and his wife live at home. One son and one daughter are married. Rabindra said that he was suddenly called by the District Police Office just a year and a half ago.

‘It was around Asar-Sharwan, when we were digging through old files, we were called to say that ours had also been found, the case branch officer looked through the files and said that the report said that he had drowned,’ he said, ‘When I searched the same place (pond) the previous day and found nothing, the next morning I suddenly found him, and the hair on the back of his head was found, so I returned and said that the incident was committed in my duty.’ After that, the police administration and no one concerned has taken any interest. ‘I should not have given up hope, everyone would have been shocked,’ added Rabindra.