Sixteen journalists and human rights activists filed a case at the Kathmandu district court Thursday claiming that they were detained illegally and were tortured in custody during the period of emergency rule in the country.

The journalists have demanded for the compensation that they are entitled to get on such violation of human rights as provisioned in the Constitution of Nepal 1990.

The journalists filing the petition are Shyam Shrestha, Gopal Budhathoki, Ishwar Chandra Gyawali, Anuradha Paudel, Revati Sapkota, Deepak Prasad Sapkota, Deependra Rokaya, Mana Rishi Dhital, Dhan Bahadur Magar, Bandhu Dev Pandey, Vijay Raj Acharya, Meena Sharma Tiwari, Vinod Tiwari and Ratna Prasad Mainali while the human rights activists filing petition are Pramod  Kafle and Dr. Mahesh Maskey.

The petition has been filed at the initiative of the Legal Aid Desk of The Press Freedom Grand Jury Nepal and the Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Study.

Legal consultant to the Grand Jury Tika Ram Bhattarai said that the legal battle will establish whether there had been violation of civic rights during the emergency. nepalnews.com am Nov 28