From the window of the kitchen, two pistols were pointed at me. Those brandishing the pistols signaled to me to keep quiet and open the door. After I opened the door, another person pointed a pistol against my temple. Four people entered the room. [break]
They told me, at gunpoint, to open the bank´s locker. I gave them the key and they opened it. They took some documents from the locker. They also took some loan documents from a table.
Before they left the bank, one of them said that they should take me too. Thereafter they blindfolded me and made we walk for nearly 15 minutes along a road that sloped down. Then they put me in a vehicle. After traveling in the vehicle for about 50 minutes, they took me inside a house. The blindfold was taken off after I was shoved into a dark room.
They said they were members of Democratic Security Force and kicked me. They said they had kidnapped me to investigate into Unity scam. They asked a lot of questions about Unity. Eventually, three of them got out, leaving me in the custody of an armed man who was wearing a mask.
There was silence in the room. I couldn´t hear any sound from outside. The windows had dark glasses and it was impossible to see through. They would give me vegetable with rice or pulse on plastic sheets. They kept me in that room for five days.
They would accuse me of swindling people in the name of Unity. I would plead innocence, but they wouldn´t believe me. Though they didn´t physically abuse me, I wasn´t spared from mental torture. I asked them several times to shoot me.
When they had to shift me to a new location, they would blindfold me and move me in a vehicle at night. Even while in the vehicle, pistols would be pointed at my temple and abdomen. They put me in a hotel for a day. They sometimes gave me just one meal a day. But in any case, I didn´t have much appetite.
They once kept me in a house located in the middle of a forest. I believe they did so as they didn´t feel secure. They threatened that they would kill me if I didn´t return the money of Unity members. I urged them to act on their threat.
Two days later, they shifted me to a different location yet again. As always, they moved me at night. While traveling, sometimes there were just two people with the driver, while at other times all four of them would be there. They wore masks even while traveling.
A day before releasing me, they said their party had decided to free me as my health had deteriorated and their party did not have money for my treatment. After traveling in a vehicle for about five hours, two of them took me out.
My hands were tied with a rope. After I stepped out of a vehicle, one of them asked me to open my mouth. As soon as I did that, one of them put a handkerchief inside my mouth, while the other tied my feet.
Shobha Adhikari´s account
The kidnappers called Friday noon and said they would release my husband at 6 pm in Chitwan. They called from my husband´s cell phone. I was in Kathmandu. I hired a taxi in Kalanki and headed for Chitwan.
They had warned that they would kill me and my husband if I informed the police or the administration. We reached Chitwan at 6:30. I tried to contact them. But my husband´s cell phone was switched off.
I received a call at midnight. They said they had left him under the bridge in Jugedi. I woke up journalists and rights worker whom I had been in conversation that evening. We reached the bridge at around 2 am. We realized that we had forgotten to carry torch lights. Someone pointed at a black mass under the bridge. We recognized him with the help of the light of cell phones.
Near him was a statement of the Democratic Security Force. There was his cell phone and some leaflets in his pocket. But the sim card was missing. We took him to Bharatpur hospital for treatment and then home. I am still terrified.
(Based on conversation with Samundra Paudel)
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