The Home Ministry has called back chief district officer (CDO) and police chief of Kanchanpur district following the violent protests against the rape and murder of teenager Nirmala Panta of Bhimdutta municipality, Kanchanpur.
The ministry has called back CDO Kumar Bahadur Khadka and SP Dilli Raj Bista for their apparent failure to handle the case. The ministry has appointed Tara Nath Adhikari as the new CDO, according to ministry spokesperson Ram Krishna Subedi.
The ministry has also formed a five-member committee led by Director General at the Department of Prison Management Hari Mainali to probe the incident.
Three persons were earlier shot after police opened fire on the locals who have been accusing the police of failing to properly investigate the rape and murder of teenager Panta. Many others have been injured in the ensuing clashes.
Bhimdutta has remained tense for the past two days following protest by the locals. Police said they opened fire after the irate locals started to vandalize the traffic police office. Additional police personnel have been sent to Bhimdutta from Kailali to take the situation under control.
The police on Saturday arrested Dilip Singh Bista, 41, of Bhimdutta-19 and produced him before the Kanchanpur District Court on Monday as the main accused. But the locals have been claiming that Bista is not the real culprit and the police are presenting him as one to save the real one.
Nirmala’s father Ek Raj, meanwhile, has claimed that the police put pressure on him to file a complaint identifying Bista as the main accused.
The joint team of the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police and the investigation team of Province 7 arrested Bista from his home in Khanna Chaurahi on Saturday.
The body of the 13-year-old, who had gone to a friend’s home for study on July 26, was found at a sugarcane field the next day.
Bista has a criminal background and had served a jail term for murder, according to police.
A three-member CIB team under DSP Angur GC was sent to Kanchanpur on July 30 to coordinate with the local police in the investigation.
