KATHMANDU, JUNE 19

Assistant Professor Prem Chalaune has staged a fastunto-death hunger strike in front of the office of the vice-chancellors at Tribuvan University in Kirtipur after the government decided to drop an attempt to murder case against his attackers.

Prior to formally sitting for the hunger strike, Chalaune was arrested from Kathmandu District Court where he had gone to stage a strike with some supporters. After police forced him out of the court and later released him from the police beat, he reached TU where he addressed the media and announced his hunger strike as a call for truth.

Chalaune's action came against the Cabinet decision of June 13 which decided to drop the case against seven students who Chalaune had charged with attempt to murder.

Interestingly enough, the final verdict in the case is supposed to be given by the KDC after tomorrow's hearing.

On 6 October 2020, a group of students led by Rupesh Shah and Rabin Lama ruthlessly attacked Chalaune on the vicinity of the varsity. Chalaune, assistant professor at the Central Department of Sociology, was heading towards his office when the mob attacked him with iron rods. He was left unconscious with multiple injuries, including a severely broken right leg and hand.

After widespread criticism of the attack, police arrested two offenders, Shah and Lama six days after the incident on October 12. Three other three persons, including Niraj Rana Magar, Sayuz Shrestha, and Deepak Raj Ojha, were arrested later in connection with the thrashing.

Later, Nepal Student Union of the TU unit Chair Hari Prasad Acharya and secretary Yogendra Rawal were also arrested as per the statement of the arrestee who had told police that Rawal and Acharya had asked them to attack the assistant professor.

KDC released all seven persons on bail. Chalaune had gone to Patan High Court seeking police remand of the perpetrator until the final verdict. However, the court also agreed to release them on bail by increasing the bail amount.

'All these years, I waited in agony for the hooligans disguised as students to be punished for what they did. But, it only added to my pain after the government directly intervened in the legal process and denied me justice,' Chalaune told THT.

Chaulaune who completed his PhD from France was one of the teachers representing the varsity in talks with student leaders who had padlocked the department citing foul play while selecting the new head of department. However, after the talks didn't reach any logical conclusion, the students had thrashed him out of anger.

A version of this article appears in the print on June 20, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.