A complaint has been filed against Lalitpur police chief SSP Pitambar Adhikari at the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons.

The case registered on Friday claims that SSP Adhikari is responsible for extrajudicial arrest, torture and enforced disappearance of Tej Bahadur Bhandari, a retired teacher and social activist in Lamjung district. Adhikari, then, was the district head of Nepal Police.

Bhandari, 56 at the time of the arrest, was caught from Beshisahar in December 2001 on the suspicion of being a Maoist sympathiser. He was never seen again.

“I am not so hopeful about justice from this politically controlled transitional justice process,” said his son Ram Bhandari. “However, it is important to lodge a complaint for official record.”

This is one of the nine cases taken up by the UN Human Rights Committee, which had asked Nepal government to probe the case and provide justice. But the government never replied to the UN body.

Besides, the National Human Rights Commission has also indicted Adhikari. The government promoted him despite his record of rights violation and a case pending against him.

Adhikari was not brought to justice as Nepal has not criminalised enforced disappearances. A bill to punish torture and disappearance was submitted by the CIEDP to the government months ago. It is yet to be endorsed.

Then chief district officer Shiva Nepal and then Major Santosh Singh Thakur also face charges. “We have a witness, who was detained along with my father, to give a statement,” said Bhandari. “The question is how ethical and legal it is to keep promoting the official indicted by national and international rights bodies.”

Two days ago, a complaint was filed against police chief of Kathmandu district SSP Bikram Singh Thapa in case of Bipin Bhandari, a student activist. Bhandari, then 22, was arrested in 2001 from Kathmandu along with four other students.

His father Ekraj Bhandari, an advocate and former lawmaker, filed a case against Thapa. He was one of the drafters of the Transitional Justice Act.