KATHMANDU: Dilip Singh Bista whom erstwhile police administration of Kanchanpur paraded as a perpetrator behind rape and murder of Nirmala Panta has been released on a general date on Tuesday after DNA reports failed to establish his connection in the crime.

As the DNA test reports failed to establish evidence against Bista, he can no longer be kept in custody, according to Chief District Officer Taranath Adhikari,

However, Bista will be kept in the boundaries of investigation, the CDO added.

Likewise, officials also released Nirmala’s friends, the Bam sisters, from police detention. Babita bam has been released on bail while Roshni Bam has been freed on a general date.

The District Police Office Administration led by erstwhile Superintendent of Police Dilli Raj Bista who now serves suspension had paraded 41-year-old Dilip Singh Bista as perpetrator behind the heinous crime.

Following Bista’s arrest locals took on the streets accusing the suspended SP of framing innocent man as the criminal. The district also witnessed weeks of public protests which left one teenager dead and several others injured.

Moreover, both the National Human Rights Commission and a high level probe committee formed by the government to probe on the case have issued statements stating serious mistakes made by the police in handling the case.

The case is now more shrouded in mystery as police have no one to point fingers to while stakeholders await justice for 13-year-old Nirmala Panta who was brutally raped, murdered and dumped in a sugarcane field.