Harijan jail suicide case: Probe committee submits report to Home Minister

The committee constituted to investigate the suicide committed by Sundar Harijan, an inmate of Rolpa District Prison submitted its findings to Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand on Tuesday.

The Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Home Affairs, Surya Sedhain is the coordinator of the probe committee. It has prepared the report after conducting an on-site investigation into the case. The committee had investigated Harijan's jail transfer and subsequent suicide.

Receiving the report, Home Minister Khand said the recommendations made in the report would be forwarded into the implementation process as per the law. He said legal action would be taken against those implicated by the report.

Harijan had hanged himself to death inside the Rolpa District Prison on May 18.

The report states that the prison administration employees were found directly or indirectly guilty of dereliction of their duty and negligent of their responsibilities stipulated in the Prison Act and Regulations in the then situation, the Home Minister's secretariat said.

Committee coordinator Sedhain said they have given recommendations through the report for improvement of the prison administration.

The Home Ministry had formed the probe committee after it was reported in the media that Harijan was sentenced to jail for a crime committed by another person and his death was under suspicious circumstances. Harijan was sent behind bars instead of Bijay Bikram Shah.

Shah was sentenced to five years for extortion while Harijan faced a jail term of one year after getting convicted of theft. Harijan was 17 years and three months old when he was convicted. He was sent to jail instead of the juvenile correction centre. Convicted children below 18 years of age are sent to correction centres instead of prison.

The committee said it investigated the error committed during the jail transfer on November 23, 2020, of Harijan and Shah from Banke prison to Rolpa prison as well as the alleged suicide by Harijan.