She is 76 years old and cannot read or write. Since she cannot hear well, anyone finds it difficult to talk to her. However, she never stops sharing her sorrows with everyone she meets. In one breath, she pours out the ‘frustration given by the country’s justice system’. ‘My son was beaten to death, and the court did not give justice either,’ she says, and then she breaks down.

Bishnukumari Pandey, who was heated up by the ‘ranko’ of the new Chief Justice’s recommendation, came to Kathmandu from Pokhara last Monday to file a petition set by the Supreme Court. The court gave the same answer that day too, ‘Your petition has been postponed, come to Kathmandu on 20th Jestha.’

After the murder of Surya Bahadur, who was walking at the Shivaratri fair in 2071, a case was filed in the Kaski District Court after her mother Bishnukumari filed a complaint against her son’s three friends, Ramchandra Manandhar, Buddha Shrestha and Dhruv Manandhar. She does not have the money to travel from Pokhara to Kathmandu and stay in a hotel. ‘The money taken from the Sarsapat has been spent by going to court, now only the small earring is left,’ she said, ‘If I get justice, I will sell that too.’ She keeps going to court every month, demanding action against those involved in her son’s murder. But she is tired of going to court like this for 15 times. Every now and then, the small phone she carries rings, but when she picks it up, she cannot hear the sound. She calls anyone nearby and requests them to talk to her. She keeps asking for help.

When the 16th hearing is scheduled for next month, she is carrying a card with the details of the judges who were previously on the ‘not to be seen list’. They include acting Chief Justice Sapana Pradhan Malla and Dr. Manoj Kumar Sharma. And, Vishnukumari asks, ‘Where can I go to meet my husband? Would he give justice to my son!’ 

She even went to Singha Durbar to meet Prime Minister Balendra Shah, wondering if she would have to return home empty-handed like before. However, the staff turned her away, saying that Shah was in Baluwatar. She reached Baluwatar, and from there they showed her Singha Durbar again. ‘Where does Balen really live?’ she asks. 

On 5 Falgun 2071, her son Surya Bahadur Pandey, 25, left home with his friends to go to the Shivaratri fair. The next morning, his body was found in a pool of blood on the cliff of the Ram temple in Tulsighat. According to the complaint filed with the police, Surya Bahadur had a dispute with Ramchandra Manandhar, Buddha Shrestha, and Dhruv Manandhar about Amrita Lama when they went to see the fair. Vishnukumari has filed a complaint alleging that she killed her son and dumped him. In his statement to the police, accused Shrestha said that Amrita Lama was hit by a stick thrown by him while he was eating sugarcane at around 7 pm that day. ‘She asked why he hit me, I thought I had hit him by mistake and she was abusing me,’ he said, ‘At that time, Surya Bahadur Pandey, also known as Kattike, suddenly came to where I was and beat me up.’ He claims that Dhruv Manandhar came and separated him at that time. Manandhar has denied the allegations, claiming the same as Shrestha. 

Another accused, Ramchandra Manandhar, has mentioned that Surya Bahadur and his friends were sitting and eating alcohol and meat on the night of the incident. ‘That day, when we were together, he had abused my girlfriend. At that time, I got angry and started an argument about why I abused her in a room where there were women,’ he told the investigating officer. ‘At that time, Surya Bahadur came out of the room after receiving a call at 1:30 in the night.’

The district and high courts acquitted the two people at various stages, saying that their claims were not sufficient. Against that decision, Bishna Kumari is seeking justice in the Supreme Court. Accused Ramchandra mentioned that after disturbing them, he followed them to the Tulsighat bridge. ‘At that time, he hit me in the chest, then I kicked and punched him and pushed him to the right side of the road, into the Seti River gorge,’ he said. ‘After not hearing him scream for some time, I went to my friend’s room and slept.’ After appearing in court, he also changed his statement. 

After the initial hearing, the District Court in Kaski ordered the Manandhar duo and Shrestha to be remanded in custody for trial. However, they filed an appeal in the High Court against the district's order. The High Court quashed the district's order and ordered their release on a bail of Rs 100,000 on 5 Ashad 2076. Later, the District Court found Ramchandra Manandhar guilty. Shrestha and Dhruv Manandhar were acquitted on the ground that the charges were not sufficient.

The government again filed an appeal in the High Court, Pokhara, against that order. A bench of Justices Shridhara Kumari Pudasaini and Pramod Kumar Shrestha Baidya ordered the district court's decision to be upheld on 13 Chaitra 2078. The appeal filed in the Supreme Court against that decision is currently being postponed repeatedly. "A year ago, he had come to Kathmandu like this. He cried saying that he would stay in the court after his case was not heard," says advocate Mohana Ansari, who is also a former member of the National Human Rights Commission. "At that time, the staff had explained and sent him away. This is an example of how much suffering citizens have to endure when cases pile up in the court for years."