KATHMANDU, APRIL 30

Police have made public one accused in the murder of Nira Pandey Acharya who was killed inside her shop in broad daylight in the busy Kapan area of Kathmandu 10 days ago.

Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police today produced Binod BK, a professional bouncer, who was arrested from Jhapa last night and brought to Kathmandu today.

Nira aka Niru, 35, used to operate a shop of kitchen utensils and gift shop called 'Niru Kitchen'. On the evening of May 20, people found her in a pool of her own blood inside the shop. The post-mortem report revealed she was stabbed more than 19 times.

Police were clueless about the culprit for over a week apart from some CCTV footages around the shop area, which too didn't reveal much information for police to crack the case anytime soon. Police had later formed an eight-member probe committee led by Additional Inspector General Kiran Bajracharya to investigate the case.

Later, the police followed the same CCTV footage and shortlisted a few possible people and started doing background checks on them. Police came to know that one person in the area around the murder time had booked an online-ride sharing and left the place After following the trace of the travel, it revealed the man had gone to a restaurant located in the north-eastern outskirt of Kathmandu at Kageshowri Moanohara Municipality. The man used to live inside a restaurant there. He had a separate room. Police in the room foundnd the same bag seen in the CCTV footage and a blood stained shirt inside the bag. However, he had already left the place by then. In fact, he was in Kathmandu for six days after the murder. After finding details of the man, police had initiated a manhunt following his travel route.

Finally, he was arrested in Jhapa at Ilam bus stop.

Police, during a press meet, said that BK had killed the women in a bid to loot the gold ornaments she was wearing. He had looted around 12 grams gold and sold it to a gold shop located in the north-western outskirts of Kathmandu at Tarakeshwor Municipality the next day for Rs 55,000. He had also taken Rs 1,200 from the shop as per the police.

The case had generated criticism as people had staged protest on the road in Kapan and lawmakers had raised their voice in the Parliament asking the government to ensure safety and security.

A version of this article appears in the print on May 1, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.