Kathmandu, December 3

Six years after the brutal gang-rape and murder of a three-year-old girl in Lalitpur, the Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police finally arrested one of the culprits yesterday.

According to CIB, Saugat Benjankar (22) and Sandeep Benjankar (21) of Chyasal, Lalitpur-9 raped and murdered the girl, who lived with her father in Thimi of Bhaktapur.

Police have arrested Saugat while Sandeep, another accused, is said to have died due to unknown reason last year. The duo were absconding after gang-raping and strangulating the toddler to death in a washroom of Saptapur Mahabihar, a Buddhist shrine, situated in Chysal on August 24, 2009.

SP Dibesh Lohani said they had gang-raped and killed the girl. Saugat and Sandeep were good friends and met at Saraswoti Dhara of Chysal at around 2:00 pm the day the incident occurred. “They noticed four children playing on the ground and hatched a plot to carry the girl away.

They lured the girl with a biscuit and bathed her in a stone spout before taking her to the washroom for rape turn by turn,” said a CIB report.