Nepal, Nov. 5 -- Nepal now has stronger laws against torture and disappearance than ever before. Yet families still sometimes find that the road to justice runs through the very institution they accuse. This week, the police chief's removal showed the road has another side.

In Part 1, I explained how a democratic Constitution was handed to an institution shaped by autocracy. This part asks what happened when that institution was tested by war, by unrest and by families who kept knocking on the state's door. It also asks why the question feels so close this week, when the Cabinet removed Inspector General Dan Bahadur Karki and made him the prime minister's security adviser.

A right on paper means little if the institution accused of viol...