CCPR/C/122/D/2265/2013 2.15 On 5 December 2005, the District Administration Office stated that Mr. Sharma was being detained under section 9 of the 2004 Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention and Punishment) Ordinance. He had initially been detained for a six-month period, which had been renewed in August 2005, since it was considered that he could still engage in terrorist activities. On 19 December 2005, Mr. Sharma was released following a 15 December 2005 order of the Supreme Court, which had found his detention unlawful. On the same day, as he was leaving the Court, Mr. Sharma was arrested again by several men in plain clothes. He and his wife were taken to the District Office police station. Ms. Sharma was subsequently released, but a warrant for terrorist activities was issued against Mr. Sharma, who remained in detention. On 5 February 2006, Mr. Sharma was formally charged with several terrorist offences by the Appellate Court and transferred to the Nakkhu jail in Kathmandu. 2.16 On 14 July 2006, Mr. Sharma was released and all charges against him were dropped as part of the negotiations conducted for the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, signed by the Government of Nepal and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) on 21 November 2006. On 27 July 2006, Mr. Sharma, together with three fellow detainees who had also been released, filed a writ before the Supreme Court publicly disclosing relevant information about their capture, torture and disappearance and naming the main perpetrators. On 1 June 2007, the Supreme Court ruled on petitions submitted on behalf of 83 persons who had been disappeared, including the writ filed by Mr. Sharma. The Court issued a mandamus order directing the Government to criminalize enforced disappearance, to constitute a high-level commission of inquiry to look into the human rights violations committed in the Bhairabnath Battalion barracks in Maharajgunj and to provide the victims with appropriate reparations. 2.17 In addition to the Supreme Court ruling, both the Peace Agreement and the Interim Constitution of 2007 provide that the State party has a legal responsibility to investigate enforced disappearances and provide remedies to the victims and their families. However, no investigations have been initiated, and no criminal or disciplinary measures have been taken against anyone identified as responsible for the alleged acts of enforced disappearance and torture. On the contrary, since October 2008, the Government has had a policy of withdrawing criminal cases under clause 5 (2) (7) of the Peace Agreement, a policy that has led to the withdrawal of more than a thousand cases before the completion of criminal proceedings. 2.18 The Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction set up an interim relief programme in 2018. Mr. Sharma was able to benefit from the initiative only as a victim of conflict under the category “wounded and injured”. He received interim relief of 100,000 rupees on 17 June 2011.3 As awarding compensation for torture is not part of the programme’s mandate, however, he was not compensated for the full extent of the ill-treatment he endured. The authorities still refuse to acknowledge his enforced disappearance from 21 October 2003 to 14 February 2005 in the barracks in Maharajgunj or to provide him with an official record of his situation during that period. 2.19 On 27 December 2009, Mr. Sharma and two former fellow detainees at the barracks in Maharajgunj submitted a petition to the Supreme Court contesting the promotion of Major General Toran Jung Bahadur Singh, who had been in command of officers responsible for enforced disappearances and torture occurring at the barracks.4 On 19 October 2011, the Supreme Court ruled that the petition could not be considered on the merits, as Toran Jung Bahadur Singh had retired. The complaint 3.1 The authors allege that the illegal arrest and detention of Mr. Sharma from 21 October 2003 to 8 March 2005 constitute an enforced disappearance and subsequently a 3 4 4 Approximately $1,130. The authors refer to A/HRC/16/48, para. 352, and Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Nepal, “Report of investigation into arbitrary detention, torture and disappearances at Maharajgunj RNA barracks, Kathmandu, in 2003–2004” (May 2006), p. 66.