Excerpts from an interview with Shanta Neupane
Shanta Neupane lives in Gitanagar, Chitwan with her two daughters and one son. She was married to Dandapani Neupane in 1969 at the age of 13. Dandapani lived in Chipchipe Village Development Committee in Tanahun and joined student politics in the 1970s. In 1973 the couple migrated to Chitwan. Dandapani, member of the Maoist Party, was arrested on and off at regular intervals. He was last arrested in 1999 and his whereabouts are not yet known. Even lawsuits that require his presence in court have failed to produce results. His wife has not given up hope; she is still looking for him. Following are excerpts from an interview with Shanta Neupane.

When was your husband arrested? Were there any witnesses?
He was arrested in the third week of April 1999 at around 7.00 PM by police in Tehbahal near Sundhara. My neighbours Poudel and Sita Adhikary, who are students, saw him being arrested. In fact they were the ones who informed me about the arrest.

The government says Dandapani is not in its custody.
The government is lying. After arresting him they kept him in Maharajgunj Battalion for a month. On the 25th day of his arrest, he was blindfolded and allowed to move out of his room. A policeman who happens to be from Chitwan told me this. He told me that they also questioned him. The policeman's description matches the name, address and age. Later they started moved him to Pokhara, Bhaktapur and other places. I came to know last February that he was ill.

What steps have you taken to locate him?
In the first week of May 1999, I filed a writ with the Supreme Court, which was overruled in the third week of June. I filed another writ some days later. That too was overturned. Last year, I held two press conferences, nothing came out of them. Human rights activists have tried to locate him, and the party is also looking for him.

Why do you think the government wants to hide him?
Maybe the government wanted him to surrender. It would be its way of getting back at the party. Leaders will never want to do anything that would bring shame to their party. That is why they might have just locked him up.