Kathmandu, September 25

Human rights activists have called on the government to make the report on Nirmala’s rape and murder case public immediately, as it has become a matter of ‘public interest’.

Mohna Ansari, commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission, in her twitter post appealed to the home minister, stating, “Many reports prepared by the home ministry have been shelved. The report on Nirmala’s murder case should not meet the same fate. We need the home ministry’s active participation to uphold human rights.”

Ansari told THT that the government had to disseminate the report’s findings, as keeping it a secret would not do anyone, including the government, any good.

Rights activist Hima Bista, who has launched a social media campaign called #RageAgainstRape echoed Ansari. “The report must be made public within 24 hours of its submission as the investigation into this case was flawed from the very beginning. We, the family of the victims and citizens of the nation need to know what happened,” Bista said.

Several days after Nirmala’s rape and murder, the NHRC had visited Kanchanpur to conduct an independent investigation. “We are yet to finalise our report, as we have not interviewed some of the senior police personnel involved in the case,” said Ansari.

While Nirmala’s murder is still shrouded in mystery, her father, Yagya Raj, said they had begun losing hope that Nirmala would get justice. “We still feel that the investigation is not headed in the right direction.”

He told THT that police had rounded up poor and innocent people rampantly in the last few days without any evidence on the pretext of pinning down criminals involved in Nirmala’s rape and murder.