DHANGADI, JANUARY 7

The Indian national, who was reportedly detained over his suspicious role in the rape and murder of Kanchanpur's Nirmala Panta, has been released on bail.

Ali Hussein of India, who had been detained earlier, was released on a bail of 1,000 rupees following the order of District Administration Office yesterday.

Police, however, have clarified that the detention of the Indian national was over his indecent behaviour.

'We didn't pick him up exactly over Nirmala case per se; since his conduct was also suspicious and could also relate to Nrimala case remotely, we had to conduct his DNA test,' said a police office at the district police office of Kanchanpur.

According to investigation officers involved in the probe of the murder, Hussein would often tease Nirmala. Police, on the basis of statements of the locals recorded with them, had made sketches of Hussein and others and were on a lookout to arrest them. Dead body of the 13-yearold girl was found in a sugarcane field in Nimbukheda in Bhimdatta Municipality-18 on 27 July 2018. Police thus far have failed to find the culprit behind the rape and murder case.

A version of this article appears in the print on January 8, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.