Father of teenager Nirmala Panta of Bhimdutta municipality, who was murdered after rape, has been sedated to bring to Kathmandu for treatment after losing mental balance while staging indefinite sit-in in Kanchanpur demanding justice.
Yagya Raj, who had started indefinite sit-in at the District Administration Office from last Sunday along with Nirmala’s mother Durga Devi, had started to talk senseless and incessantly during the course of sit-in.
He was injected with sedatives at the Seti Zonal Hospital Saturday afternoon to bring him to Kathmandu on a Buddha Air flight but the airlines refused to have him on board stating he was not fit to fly. “We are taking him on an ambulance today,” Durga Devi told Setopati.
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 Dilli Raj 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 (he has now been dismissed) 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. But the DNA of the three did not match with the samples collected from Nirmala's vaginal swab. 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.
