Hem Dulal

Kathmandu, July 18:

It’s murder most foul, cops would contend. The conundrum is, however, that, in this case, there is no bodily evidence — literally. In the ‘absence’ of the body of the ‘murdered’ man, filing a case in a court could land cops in the soup. And, the alleged murderers could go scot free. A police team from the Valley Crime Investigation Branch (VCIB), Hanumandhoka, arrested six persons on July 15 on the charge of murdering one Krishna Bahadur Rai, 17, who hailed from Nuwakot. Rai was said to have been murdered on July 8. Those arrested were Dinesh Bahadur Pandey, 30, and Ramesh Pariyar, 17, locals of Dhalku, Sanjay Gurung, 17, of Chapagaon, Kuber Gurung, 18, of Panchthar, Buddha Lama, 17, of Lalitpur and Krishna Rai, 17, of Nuwakot. All of them, including the “murdered” man, stayed in the same house at Dhalku, Kathmandu, police said today. They were supposed to be friends.

Police said they arrested the six after a complaint was filed at the Swoyambhu Ward Police Office some days ago. However, even after four days of searching, police could not recover the body. After investigation, it was revealed that the six had beaten up Rai in the night with iron rods and he died within minutes. They wrapped up the body in a sack and dumped it in the Bagmati, police said. However, the following day, Krishna Rai, elder brother of the

‘murdered’ and also allegedly one of the murderers, saw the body floating in the river. He, along with the other five, pushed the body further into the river and waited till the body was swept at least one kilometre away.

Police seem still confused on how to proceed. “Though we have the written confession of the culprits that they committed the murder and threw the body in the river, we would be in a difficult situation if the culprits denied the same in court and asked us to produce any evidence about the body”, a police official at the Kathmandu District Police Office (KDPO) said.

“However, we are preparing to charge them with murder,” DSP Ganesh KC at the KDPO, said.

According to Tikaram Bhattarai, a criminal lawyer, police can file a case without the dead body. “However, police will have a tough time to produce enough evidence in court. Generally, in such cases, the accused ones get a clean chit,” he said.