Slightly drunk, a heavy-built man went up to the stage where the band was playing and held the bassist by his collar and started pushing him around. Other band members along with restaurant staff and some guests came to the rescue only to find out that the guy was a cop in civil dress.
Before the musicians and staff could ask anything of the policeman, he called in more than a dozen policemen from Sohrakhutte Police Range office. The police, upon arrival, started baton-charging the musicians, restaurant staff and guests present in the restaurant. Six of them were then taken into custody, manhandled, abused and beaten up.
All this happened as the capital was celebrating two music festivals -- The Himalayan Blues Festival and Jazzmandu.
Guitarist and vocalist of the band Ashesh Dangol, bassist Pujan Shrestha, restaurant guests Rhijwal Manandhar and Nibendra Pradhananga and staffers Rudra Awasthi and Bibash were let go only on Saturday afternoon, after being forced to sign a paper saying they had tried to hit a police officer.
Lead guitarist and vocalist Ashesh Dangol, who was dragged by the hair to the police van and had his clothes torn, said the police official in civil dress “interrupted us brutally without any warning” and did not disclose his identity until the police van arrived. The musician also accused the unidentified police official of being drunk.
“I had no idea what was happening. We were just playing. A guy cames onstage, drags Pujan (the bassist) and when I try to stop him, he manhandles me. Then he called in around 20 cops who started charging at us blindly,” Dangol said showing his bruises. “When we asked what our fault was, the policemen started kicking us and used abusive language.”
Police inspector Rugam Kunwar at Sohrakhutte Police Range refuted the accusations made by the band. Kunwar said the police official in civil dress was attacked when he “requested the band to stop the music since it was past 10 o’clock, as required by the new rules and regulations.”
“Following my duty, I had to deploy more officials. To baton charge was the obvious thing to do when a police officer is attacked,” Kunwar told myrepublica.com.
Shrestha sustained injuries including a deep cut on his back, from the beatings by police. Two bystanders at the restaurant were also baton charged when they tried to help the band members, Dangol said.
The police may have had to enforce the 10 p.m. rule set by the government, but the musicians were unhappy over the way they interfered. “Also, there was live music still playing at the Sheesha Bar (just next to North Palace) till 10:30 p.m. Why did the cops intervene at our restaurant alone, with such brutality?” he added.
Upon several requests, the police took the six detainees to Bir Hospital at three in the morning. But the musicians say they were forced to sign a medical form that said they were drunk. “We thought we were taken there for medical supervision. But the police officer forced us to stamp our finger prints on a medical form that said we were drunk,” says one of the musicians. They were denied any medical attention at the emergency ward of the hospital.
Restaurant staff Rudra Awasthi who had not taken any alcohol was also made to sign the form. Restaurant owner Chiranjibi Vadda apologized to the police to get the musicians freed Saturday morning. However Vadda was unavailable for comment.
avash@myrepublica.com
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