Kathmandu, March 24

The Metropolitan Police Crime Division has arrested three men who allegedly gang-raped and murdered a 20-year-old woman.

The suspects nabbed by MPCD are Sunny Lama (28) and Sajit Lama (24) of Bouddha, Kathmandu, and Rajan Rai (19) of Morang but residing in Thali, Kathmandu. One suspect is still at large.

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MPCD initiated a thorough investigation to trace the culprits after a 20-year-old girl from Rajarani, Dhankuta, who was residing in Saraswoti Nagar, Kathmandu, was found dead in a bamboo grove in Manpokhari, Bhaktapur, on February 26.

Though police said the suspects were nabbed from Tribhuvanagar, Sarlahi, a source said MPCD, in association with Indian police, caught the trio from Sitamarhi district of Bihar yesterday.

SSP Sarbendra Khanal, MPCD in-charge, said the suspects, including the man who is absconding, had drinks with the girl in a Thamel-based restaurant before taking her to an apartment building in Lazimpat on February 20.

They allegedly threw her from sixth floor, as she refused to have physical relationship with the gang.

Rajan and Sajit called the girl to Bouddha at around 3:00pm and introduced to Sunny and the man who has been absconding. Sunny and his friend took her to a Thamel-based restaurant where they got drunk before heading to the apartment at around 11:00pm.

Rajan and the girl had been Facebook friends for three months.

“While Sunny was getting physical with the girl in a room, his friend who is absconding tried to rape her. This led to a drunken brawl between the two.

The girl sneaked into a toilet but the absconder took her out and threw her off the sixth floor in the wee hours of February 20,” said SSP Khanal.

The girl was alive but critically injured after the fall. But instead of taking her to a hospital they put her in their private vehicle waited for her to die.

Sunny and his absconding friend then dumped her body in a bamboo grove in Bhaktapur. SSP Khanal said police are searching for Sunny’s absconding friend.