Dhangadi, October 13

Additional Inspector General of Nepal Police Dhiru Basnet, coordinator of High Level Committee formed to investigate the rape and murder of Nirmala Panta, 13, of Bhimdatta Municipality, today said that the incident was being probed minutely.

Talking to mediapersons at Mahendranagar, AIG Basnet said his committee was probing police officers and other employees from District Police Office, Kanchanpur, who were deployed to investigate Nirmala’s rape and murder. “We are investigating police officers and other staffers deployed from district police office to probe Panta’s rape and murder and their work execution,” he said, adding, “Investigation of 26 police personnel deployed to probe the incident is under way.”

According to AIG Basnet, if the role of police personnel proves suspicious, severe action will be taken. “We are probing the incident,” he stated.

Basnet urged all to provide information related to the incident. The team reached Mahendranagar yesterday and met the victim’s family, family of Dilip Singh Bista,who was framed and presented as guilty by then Kanchanpur police chief and visited the incident site.

“We held discussion with rights activists,” Basnet said. Women rights activist Sharada Chand said they had demanded stern action against police officers and personnel for negligence of investigation and concealing and destroying evidences.

Nirmala’s father Ekraj Panta complained that the guilty were not booked though months had passed since the incident. “The guilty must be booked no matter who they are,” Ekraj demanded.

DSP Krishnaraj Ojha said they were having hard time gathering information. “The locals can put forth their demands, but they have to give information related to the incident”, DSP Ojha said.