Forensic examination of ashes collected from Singha Durbar, Supreme Court, Parliament Building, President's Office, Kantipur Publications and Bhatbhateni Supermarket is being conducted.
We use Google Cloud Translation Services. Google requires we provide the following disclaimer relating to use of this service:
This service may contain translations powered by Google. Google disclaims all warranties related to the translations, expressed or implied, including any warranties of accuracy, reliability, and any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and noninfringement.
After a month and a half of the Gen-G movement, the police have finally started the forensic examination process of the structures that were set on fire. For forensic examination, the police have collected ashes from the main administrative center Singha Durbar, the Supreme Court, the Parliament Building, the President's Office, and from the private sector, Kantipur Publications and Bhatbhateni Supermarket.
After suspicions arose from various angles about the fire that broke out in various places on Bhadra 24, an investigation committee led by SP Kazi Kumar Acharya of the Valley Crime Investigation Office has been formed to conduct a technical investigation. Officers from the police's forensic science laboratory collected ashes from Kantipur's Thapathali office on Saturday. "Samples have been taken from various places in the same damaged building. Samples have been taken from 5 places only from the Kantipur building," the officer said. The American newspaper 'The New York Times' had presented an analysis, suspecting that chemical substances were used during the arson on Bhadra 24.
Kantipur had also analyzed messages exchanged over three days on the 'Youth Against Corruption' and 'Youth Hub' servers of 'Discord', a platform where youth unite for the Gen-G movement. A total of 114,000 messages were exchanged on these servers in about 50 hours from 9:35 pm on September 7 (22 Bhadra) to midnight on September 9 (24 Bhadra), discussing the use of chemicals including sodium and making petrol bombs. The word 'Molotov cocktail' alone was found to have been used 356 times in the 'Discord' discussion.
According to Vigyanraj Sharma, a member of the high-level commission formed by the government to investigate the incidents of 23 and 24 Bhadra, a letter has been sent to the police asking them to test even if only the ashes of the burnt building are left. 'The commission had written a letter to test before there was much discussion outside. We had asked them to do it soon because the later the more chemicals are likely to be released, the easier it is for us to prepare the final investigation report once the report comes.' Police officers, however, say that they received the commission's letter only after the internal investigation committee was formed. ‘The investigation committee is preparing to send the details to the commission,’ said an officer.
The police investigation committee led by Acharya includes SP Shalikram Sharma of the Valley Police Office, Ranipokhari, and DSP Chandra Thapa of the District Police Range, Kathmandu. Technical police officers from units including the Central Police Laboratory are also members. ‘We have been instructed to submit the report after completing the tests as soon as possible. The headquarters understands that an investigation is necessary to dispel the suspicions of the common people,’ says a member of the committee. ‘Arson itself is a crime, and if chemicals were used, it is a matter that needs to be investigated further, which is also risky for the future.’
Forensic experts, however, express concern that the delay in collecting evidence will lead to the investigation not taking the right path. According to Jeevan Rijal, former head of the National Forensic Science Laboratory, the more the delay, the more difficult it will be to collect evidence, so the crime scene should have been secured in the first place. “Some things may not be known even after many people have entered the place or after a long time,” he says. Even officials at the police forensics laboratory admit that there has been a delay in collecting evidence. “It is very difficult to find what we are looking for from the ashes collected at this time, but we are trying,” said a laboratory official.
Some officials suspect that it may be difficult to find evidence even as the places were cleaned up immediately after the Gen-G movement. “The cleaning was praised at the time, but the evidence should have been sealed immediately,” said an official. “The later the evidence is collected for investigation, the more difficult it is. But since there were many arsons, if you work hard, you may find something.”
Gen-G took to the streets on 23 Bhadra against the ban on social media and corruption. The protesters, angered by the widespread repression by the police that day, vandalized and set fire to government, private and commercial structures and party offices the next day. Questions are now being raised about how fires broke out in various places after protesters entered the parliament building. Gen-G leaders are saying that their intention was not to vandalize or set fire, while Prime Minister Sushila Karki and others have suspected that an infiltration took place on 24 Bhadra.
