Husband murdered by Maoists, 30-yr-old takes on Prachanda

“Prachanda is unfit to occupy the high post and he must be stopped from getting there at any cost,” said Ramila. Her demand is now snowballing into a big movement, as about 102 organisations, including some NGOs, have already come forward to support it.

The capital city witnessed a dawn-to-dusk bandh on Wednesday in support of the call she gave. And it is taking a political dimension.

Things could have been different if Ramila, like many other victims of the Maoists, had chosen to shed tears quietly and helplessly. She brought to the public the story of how her husband Ramhari Shrestha, a 35-year old fast-food restaurant owner was taken to a Maoist camp in Chitwan, tortured and how he disappeared two weeks ago.

When Prachanda requested her to meet him in Vaishali Hotel on Thursday morning to discuss the issue, she was candid and forthright, as always. “I will not keep quiet unless and until my husband is produced before me dead or alive,” she said. “Prachanda said he is dead, but I will not rest until I am handed over his body,” Ramila told The Indian Express, giving an account of what transpired in the hour-long meeting.

A girl from Kathmandu’s Jhonchhe area, she met Ramhari Shrestha, a youth from eastern Nepal’s Ramechhap district some 15 years ago. They fell in love and married two years later. She was a partner Ramhari’s initiatives to set up business and establish the family financially. And they succeeded.

And when peace returned and Maoists joined the democratic process, things looked up for the country and business. But not for Ramila. Their house in Kathmandu’s Koteshwar area was rented last year by some people who said they were from a ‘man-power agency’. Only later did the family realise they were Maoist guerrillas.

Bibidh, a dreaded guerrilla during the insurgency, was one of the occupants of the rented space, although he was supposed to be the commandant of the Peoples Liberation Army’s third division located in Shaktikhor area of Chitwan district, some 200-km south-west of the capital.

Bibidh seems to be at the centre of Ramila’s tragedy. On March 27, Rs 17 lakh and a revolver that belonged to Bibidh went missing. Ramhari was interrogated a couple of times, first in his own house and then taken to the cantonment and let off. The missing money was recovered a few days later but Bibidh asked Ramhari to accompany him to the camp on April 27 for further investigation.

“I kept inquiring over the phone and each time I called, I was told that he would be released very soon,” said Ramila. “I last spoke to him on May 5. He sounded very week, barely able to speak. But again, Bibidh told me that he was found innocent and would be released very soon,” she said.

Available reports suggest that Ramhari was brutally tortured for almost 10 days in the CCTV-fitted cantonment which is under monitoring and supervision of the United Nations Mission to Nepal (UNMIN). He was taken to a hospital in Chitwan on May 8, his brain and kidney damaged by excessive torture. Soon the doctors declared him dead. According to the confession made by Bibidh to Ramila’s family later, the body was thrown into a river.

The pain of loss of her husband was coupled with the denial of her right to perform last rites according to her traditional and religious beliefs. “I am not going to compromise on this,” she said.

Prachanda was apparently worried that the protests against the Maoists might be exploited by “regressive forces at a time when the country is going to be declared a Republic next week.”

“I am not bothered who is on my side, and on the side of justice. But I will fight for my right. I will have the culprits brought to justice,” she said, adding “let Prachanda apologise in writing and let Bibidh and others involved be handed over to the police for investigation.”

“It is not a political agenda. I know political parties may also join it. But I am not doing politics,” Ramila said. She has told her two children, Robin (11) and Robina (9), not to cry, but fight against injustice.

Robin even addressed a protest rally that brought tears to many eyes . He said he would refuse to take compensation from the Maoists—an offer that Prachanda made. “Prachanda, is it OK if I killed your father and paid you money in compensation,” he asked.

The crowd not only clapped but went on to throw out Prachanda’s portraits depicting him as the ‘First future President of Nepal’.