The Home Ministry has dismissed the then chief of Kanchanpur Police SP Dilli Raj Bista and Inspector Jagadish Prasad Bhatta over mishandling the case of rape and murder of teenager Nirmala Panta of Bhimdutta municipality.
The ministry, however, has stated the duo will be eligible for government service in the future raising suspicions that the dismissal is merely a hogwash to placate the irate public and the duo may well be compensated in the future with government appointments.
The ministry letter also does not speak about any criminal proceedings against the duo despite a member of the probe committee formed to investigate the case calling Bista an accomplice.
Under Secretary at the Internal Affairs Ministry of Far Western province Birendra Bahadur KC in a second opinion in the report of the probe committee had called the then SP Bista an accomplice in the case and recommended he be jailed for at least five years for torturing Dilip Singh Bista to force him plead guilty.
KC argued that the fact that SP Bista wrote to the central forensic laboratory of Nepal Police to correct the details of samples on August 26 after mentioning recovery of blue underwear with Amit Gold printed in it, blue inner vest, and a grey jeans half-paint in the field report on August 20 and sending them to the laboratory for examinations proves that he is an accomplice.
He also contended that the police personnel who rinsed Nirmala Panta's innerwear, and washed her genitals and thighs should also be considered accomplice now that the clothes have gone missing. He pointed that the fact that thumbprint of Nirmala's father Yagya Raj was forged on the day when the father was in India also shows that the police are complicit.
The new General Criminal Code recommends equal or half the punishment of the guilty person for the accomplices.
The ministry on Thursday has dismissed the duo, earlier suspended for negligence in investigation of the case, on recommendation of the Nepal Police headquarters. The ministry earlier had sought clarification from the officers twice asking why they should not be dismissed. It has dismissed them stating that explanations were not satisfactory.
The body of 13-year-old Panta of Bhimdutta municipality 2, who had gone to a friend’s home for study on July 26, was found at a sugarcane field the next day.
A CIB team led by DSP Angur GC had reached Kanchanpur four days after the incident. Doubts arose about the police investigation after the CIB team and the then SP at Kanchanpur Bista made 41-year-old Dilip Singh Bista, who was mentally challenged, public as the culprit on the 24th day of the incident on August 18.
The District Government Attorney Office released Bista after DNA samples collected from Nirmala Panta’s body did not match with that of Bista.
The locals have been claiming that Bista was framed by the police to save the real culprits. Nirmala’s father Yagya Raj has claimed that the police put pressure on him to file a complaint identifying Bista as the main accused.
One boy was killed in police firing and dozens injured in clashes with police as the locals protested for days accusing the police of trying to save the real culprits.
The then SP of Kanchanpur Bista was then suspended for mishandling the case while the CIB sent another team under SSP Thakur Gyawali for investigations.
Samples were then collected for DNA test of the suspended SP Bista, his son Kiran and Aayush Bista, nephew of Mayor of Bhimdutta municipality Surendra Bista to investigate the case. Police personnel involved in preliminary investigation have also undergone lie-detector tests.
Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa has since revealed that the clothes worn by Nirmala Panta were burnt and thumbprint of her father was forged in the field report prepared by the police.
