On 29 May 2019, the Birgunj bench of High Court, Janakpur upheld the 2017 verdict of the District Court of Bara in favour of torture survivor, Brij Kishor Shah. Shah was tortured in police custody in 2016.

Earlier on 30 April 2017, the District Court of Bara ordered the government to provide him with the compensation of NPR 75,000, and recommended departmental action against police officers responsible of torture.

Terai Human Rights Defenders Alliance, which has provided legal aid to Shah since 2016, welcomes the decision of the High Court. The organization would like the government authorities to effectively implement the court’s ruling to provide justice to the victim.

Brij Kishor Shah, 44 years’ old, resident of Matiarwa-9, Bara district. He owns an enterprise named “Jayma Durga traders”. His business was related to import and export of betel nut (Supari) and other general goods, mainly food items. He had brought 13755 kg of betel nut from different whole sellers and had kept it in store room. The police personnel of District Police Office (DPO), Bara forcefully entered his store room and accused him that he had bought the betel nuts illegally. The police personnel took all the betel nuts and handed it to the Revenue Investigation Department; Central Regional Office, Pathalaiya, Bara. Brij Kishor filed the writ petition of injunction in Appellate Court, Hetauda. The court gave stay order.

On 5th June 2016 the police had grudge on Brij Kishor and therefore, arrested him under public offence Act. He was kept in detention for 12 days for investigation and after that he was released on bail of NPR 5000. During the detention period, he was physically and mentally tortured by the perpetrators, under the command of DSP Binod Sharma and Police Inspector Sashi Kumar Thakur. The victim’s family was not given the permission to visit him in the detention center. Both the perpetrators used Bamboo stick, fist, slap and boots to beat the victim in head, hand and private parts and also used foul words against him. From the beating of the police, his head, both the ears, eyes, and private parts had extreme pain. In addition to that, his nerves swells up of his left hand and have extreme pain. The pain was unbearable and therefore, the victim requested and begged for health check and he was taken Kalaiya Hospital. But due to the influence of the Police, the doctor didn’t treat his injuries rather gave medicine for his stomach.

He was released on 16 June 2016 and got his health checked in private hospital. After the check up, it was found that he had hearing impaired and he can’t see properly.

He filed a case against the perpetrators on 29 June 2016 under Torture Compensation Act. in Bara District Court. The court gave verdict on his favor on 30 April 2017. The court ordered NPR 75, 000 for compensation and departmental actions to the perpetrators.

In response to the District Court’s decision, the defendant had filed an appeal at the High Court on 12 November 2017.