Kathmandu, January 3

Kanchanpur District Police Office today called activists of the ‘Justice for Nirmala Campaign’ and told them that police were ready to collect DNA samples of Nirmala’s parents to do a cross-check with her vaginal swab.

A few days ago, Nirmala’s parents had requested Inspector General of Police Sarbendra Khanal to confirm the authenticity of their daughter’s vaginal swab. The National Human Rights Commission and rights activists also doubt the authenticity of Nirmala’s vaginal swab.

Nar Bahadur Saud, a rights activist, said, “SP Kuber Kathayat called me this morning and assured me that police were ready to collect blood samples of Nirmala’s parents.”

Recently, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, speaking at a gathering of Nepal Scouts, had said that the case had turned mysterious after DNA samples of the suspects, who had confessed to raping and killing Nirmala, did not match with Nirmala’s vaginal swab.

Pradip Rawal and Bishal Chaudhary, who were released after being held in the CIB custody for 24 and 19 days, respectively, had claimed that they were tortured to confess the crime.

A source said police had collected DNA samples of more than 30 persons since the rape and murder of Nirmala. Police, however, claim that DNA samples of only 11 persons were collected so far and none of them matched with Nirmala’s vaginal swab.

Nirmala had disappeared after visiting her classmate Aachal Bam, aka Roshani, on July 26. Her mother had called police that evening after she went missing, but no action was taken, according to a government report.

Her body was found at around 9:00am the next day in a sugarcane field. When the body was found, the lower half was submerged in water. But when police arrived at the crime scene, they did very little to protect whatever evidence was left.