Kathmandu, July 29

Nepali Congress Lawmaker Binda Devi Ale Rana in the parliamentary Delegated Management and Government Assurance Committee today questioned the government’s ability to find the culprit(s) of Nirmala Panta’s rape and murder.

“How will people trust the government that cannot make any headway into 13-year-old Nirmala Panta’s rape and murder case in the last one year?,” she asked Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa.

At the meeting, Rana asked the minister what new strategies would be adopted to investigate the case now.

At the beginning of the meeting, Chair of the panel Ram Narayan Bidari asked nine questions to Home Minister Thapa. The questions asked were related to various issues, including the Nirmala rape and murder case, attack on Nepal Communist Party (NCP) lawmaker Niru Devi Pal, natural disaster management, murder of former ambassador Kesab Jha and murder of Sangin GC, among others.

Nirmala was raped and murdered on July 26 last year in Kanchanpur. Pal was attacked by unknown people in August last year in Kathmandu. Jha and 22-year old GC were murdered in August last year in Kathmandu. However, Home Minister Thapa failed to give concrete answers to the questions put forth by lawmakers.

In Nirmala’s case, he said the government had formed many committees to investigate the case and also sent different teams from the Central Bureau of Investigation, but failed to find the culprit(s). “The government is trying to investigate the case from every angle,” he said. Thapa also handed over a document prepared by investigation teams to the committee stating that the document’s content was sensitive and could not to be shared with the public. “The document itself speaks about progress made by teams involved in the investigation so far,” Thapa added. Another lawmaker Chandra Bahadur Khadka asked why police had released Dilip Singh Bista even after collecting a few evidences against him.

Answering the question, Minister Thapa said Bista was released after his DNA test did not match with the DNA profile found in Nirmala’s vaginal swab.

In reply to the questions related to other cases, he simply said investigation was under way.