• We’d been keeping a tab on him since the incident and picked him from his home on Saturday

Dhangadi, August 20

Police in Kanchanpur today made public a person arrested in connection with the murder of 13-year-old Nirmala Panta of Kanchanpur’s Bhimdatta Municipality.

According to the District Police Office Spokesperson Deputy Superintendent of Police Gyan Bahadur Sethi, Dilip Singh Bista, 41, of Baghphanta, Bhimdatta Municipality, who was made public at a press conference at the DPO, was arrested on Saturday.

“We’d been keeping a tab on him since the incident and picked him from his home on Saturday,” said the DSP, adding Bista had admitted to have sexually abused and killed Nirmala.

Police sources said Bista was produced in court yesterday.

Nirmala was found dead in a sugarcane field on July 27, a day after she had gone to her friend’s home to get a notebook.

Bista, a bachelor, who was released from prison last year after serving nine years for murdering his brother-in-law Narayansingh Thapa, works as a daily-wage labourer.

According to Bista’s statement to police, he helped Nirmala fix her bicycle chain before raping and killing her on July 26. He said he killed her to avoid being arrested again.

There have been demonstrations by locals and rights activists asking police to bring the perpetrator(s) to book. There were two dozen teams in the district to investigate the incident.

READ ALSO:

• Kanchanpur rape case investigation nearing conclusion, official says
• One held in connection with Nirmala Pant’s rape and murder