Chitwan, July 27
The body of a man who died allegedly after army personnel beat him black and blue on the charge of entering the Chitwan National Park illegally has been sent to Kathmandu for postmortem.
Though the facility is available in Chitwan also, the authorities sent the body to Kathmandu as the incident has already been controversial, and the postmortem report by the experts in Chitwan can also be drawn into controversy.
Earlier on July 16, Raj Kumar Chepang (24), a resident of Rapti municipality-2, and six other locals were detained by the security personnel on the charge of entering the park illegally. They were released on the same day, but the soldiers had beaten them harshly, according to Santa Lal Praja, a close friend of Chepang.
Chepang had died seven days after the incident on Thursday last week, and the family members and their neighbours have been claiming that the cause of the death was the soldier’s beating.
“Since we do not have forensic experts here and the issue is a controversial one, we have sent the body to Kathmandu to get experts to examine it,” Dr Sujan Adhikari, who carries out autopsies at Bharatpur Hospital in the district, says, “Fearing the controversy would deepen if the postmortem report was brought to controversy, we cautiously sent the case to the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital.”
