Old lady’s body found after 16 days

KATHMANDU: The Valley Police crime investigation branch on Friday said the body of an old woman missing since January 28 was recovered from a drain along the Bishnumati in the morning.

Police suspect the lady, Sanu Mainya Malakar, 62, was murdered by dacoits who had broken into her house and made away with a TV set and a cassette player. The lady had been missing since then. She had been living in a land owned by the Tripureshwor guthi.

Police arrested Dhruba Thapa, 52, Govinda Thapa, 50, Niru Lama, 18, and Ajay Lama on February 8 with the stolen goods.

According to Kush Bahadur Thapa, police inspector at Kathmandu district police office, the crooks admitted to the crime and said they suffocated her to death. "We murdered her so she would not disclose our identities," the official quoted looters as saying.

They then threw her body in a drain of the Bishnumanti river just 100 metres away from her house. — HNS