Parsa District Administration Office (DAO) has released three persons who were arrested last week for parading a 64-year-old man from Bhawanipur VDC with a shoe garland around his neck after his son eloped with a girl from the so-called upper caste family.

Chief District Officer (CDO) Keshav Raj Ghimire, who stepped in to adjudicate the case on Tuesday evening, released Shiva Shankar Patel, Bramhadev Patel, and Surendra Paswan on bail. Shiva Shankar is a former chairman of Bhawanipur VDC.

Police had booked the three men for a public offence, though they had committed a caste discrimination crime.

CDO Ghimire said that considering the seriousness of the crime, the perpetrators were ordered to pay the bail of Rs 5,000 each which is higher than the standard bail amount for public offence crimes.

 Some law practitioners in the district said the trio had committed a hate crime and they were let off easily. 

It is learnt that some local politicians had influenced the case. On Friday, a delegation of local political parties had reached the DAO and pressed for an early release of the three men.

Superintendent of Police Rajababu Shreshta said the perpetrators were granted early release because they were old and infirm.

The three perpetrators had paraded a 64-year-old man with a shoe garland around his neck after his son eloped with a girl from the so-called upper caste family