DHANGADHI, July 29: Police have failed to identify the culprit(s) responsible for raping and killing a 13-year-old girl of Bhimdattapanta Municipality-2 of Kanchanpur district even three days after the incident. Nirmala Panta, who was missing since Thursday, was found dead on Friday.
Mahendranagar remained tensed on Saturday after the victim’s family, locals, sister organizations of main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) along with various women’s rights organizations staged protest demanding the arrest of the perpetrators, relief for the victim’s family and establishment of police station in the incident site to ensure safety of others.
As of now, the victim’s family members have not claimed the body demanding that the police book those responsible for the crime. The local authorities, however, are negotiating with the victim’s family to accept the body.
Another teenager raped in Kanchanpur
On Thursday, Panta, a ninth-grader had left for her friend Roshani Bam’s house at around 11 am for study. Bam’s house is one and a half kilometers away from her house. Reportedly, she spent three hours there and left for her home at around 3 pm. But unfortunately, she never returned her home.
As she did not return till late evening, her relatives informed the police about the missing girl. They accused the police of refusing to search for her that very day. According to the victim’s family, the police told them to wait until the next morning.
On Friday, her body was recovered from a sugarcane field of Bhimdatta-18, informed Inspector Gyan Bahadur Sethi. There were no clothes on her body. The incident site is 500 meters away from Bam’s house.
Some suspects have been rounded up for investigation but the police are yet to identify the culprit(s). Police could not find any evidence from the incident site as there was one feet of water where the body was recovered.
“We are waiting for the postmortem report for further details,” said Inspector Sethi.
Protesters obstructed vehicular movement and even clashed with the security personnel. Panta’s death has sparked criticism all over social media. After failing to nab the culprit(s) even after three days of the incident, the locals have widely criticized the police.
Earlier, on July 10, Kabita Bista,17, of Krishnapur Municipality-8, Shantipur was gang-raped and later killed.
