Police have submitted an investigation report to the District Attorney’s Office on Friday with the conclusion that six people, including Nawaraj BK, were intentionally killed in the Rukum incident.

The Rukum District Attorney’s Office on Sunday filed cases against 34 people for their alleged involvement in killing six Dalit youths in Soti of Rukum at the district court demanding life imprisonment.
Attempt to murder, murder, and caste-based discrimination and untouchability charges have been filed against them.

According to Krita Bahadur Bohara, registrar at the court, among the 34 arrested, 20 were held based on the complaint filed by the family members of the deceased, nine people were held during police investigation, and five are still at large.
Chaurjahari Municipality Ward No. 8 Chairman Dambar Bahadur Malla is also in police custody for abetting the crime.

The District Attorney’s Office filed the chargesheets against the accused based on the police findings. The court will start recording the statements of two children under 18 years of age from Monday while the statements of other suspects will be recorded Tuesday onwards.

On May 23, villagers of Soti in Chaurjahari Municipality, Rukum, chased away Nabaraj BK and 18 of his friends from the neighbouring district of Jajarkot upon learning that the group had come to help Nabaraj elope with his 17-year-old girlfriend.
Since then, six bodies have been recovered from the Bheri river.

On May 30, a team of Karnali Provincial Assembly members, after visiting the incident site and talking to witnesses as well as family members, concluded that the incident was premeditated and borne out of caste-based discrimination.

The Federal Ministry of Home Affairs has formed a five-member team to investigate the incident while a nine-member parliamentary committee was also last week to probe the incident, giving it 30 days to submit its report.