A report of human rights NGO Tarai Human Rights Defender Alliance (THRD Alliance) has concluded that torture has largely been used as a tool to extract bribes, victimize persons from poor, vulnerable, and marginalized communities (including women and children), framing individuals for crimes they did not do, and as a show of power and intimidation. A press note issued by the NGO said that it documented several cases of torture from mid-2013 onwards in the Tarai region. "These cases include those of Madhu Tajpuriya (an elderly tea vendor beaten to death after consuming alcohol), Dev Bahadhur Thapa (an agricultural laborer brutally beaten by both the police and his fellow prisoners after his landowner accused him of stealing some lemons), and Vijay Kumar Yadav (a buffalo herder tortured for alleging publicly that the police abused the public and were corrupt)," THRD Alliance said. The report was launched on February 20 by Hon. Mohana Ansari, a member of the National Human Rights Commission of Nepal. According to THRD Alliance, the methods of torture used range from physical methods of severe beatings using bamboo sticks, plastic pipes, and batons to mental torture (including threats to family and threats of electrocution). "Many were also treated in a degrading manner, with some of the victims forced to strip nude, and an aggressive use of vulgarities and ethnic slurs." THRD Alliance drew attention to the fact that while the government has attempted to devolve responsibility for torture to the individual policeman, in reality, it is solely responsible for creating situational forces that shape the characters of the individual policemen. "An implicit compact that no one will be punished for the use of torture encourages, or, at the very least, permits the individual policeman to commit torture. Security forces are hence allowed to operate with impunity," the press note said. The NGO further says that for all the cases of torture that THRD Alliance has documented since 2011, no disciplinary action has been carried out against any of the perpetrators. "This is so even in the cases where the victims suffered dire consequences in that they died because of torture, such as Madho Tajpuriya, Mangare Murau or Ramsewak Dhobi (whose cases were reported in THRD Alliance’s earlier report in March 2014 on Continuing Extrajudicial Executions in the Terai)," it said. The rights organization urges the government of Nepal to distance itself from the illegal actions of the police officials by criminalizing torture and punishing the perpetrators.