The Kanchanpur District Court has given clean chit to eight police personnel charged of torturing suspects, and negligence and destruction of evidence during investigation of the rape and murder of 13-year-old Nirmala Panta of Kanchanpur.
A bench of Judge Gopal Prasad Bastola on Thursday has acquitted all eight police personnel including the then chief of Kanchanpur Police SP Dilli Raj Bista who were charged of torturing suspect Dilip Singh Bista, and negligence and destruction of evidence.
The acquitted personnel includes the then DSP with the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) Angur GC, DSP Gyan Bahadur Shetty, Inspectors Ekendra Khadka and Jagadish Prasad Bhatta, Sub-inspectors Hari Singh Dhami and Ram Singh Dhami, and Constable Chandni Saud, according to Registrar with the court Yadu Nath Sharma.
"They have been acquitted as the suspect did not seem to have been tortured, no wounds were seen in the medical report, and his statement to the court that the police did not torture him, and there was no sign of hiding or neglecting evidence," Sharma elaborated.
Bista was already released on bail of Rs 1 million, DSP duo and Inspector Khadka on Rs 900,000 each, Inspector Bhatta Rs 400,00, Sub-inspector Hari Singh Dhami Rs 350,00, Sub-inspector Ram Singh Dhami Rs 300,000, and Constable Saud Rs 200,000.
The body of 13-year-old Panta of Bhimdutta municipality 2, who had gone to her friend Roshani Bam’s home for study on July 26, 2018, was found at a sugarcane field the next day.
Some of the police personnel involved in the investigation of the case were relieved from their job while some were suspended after finding out their involvement in damaging evidences and fabricating suspects.
Dilip Singh Bista's elder brother later had filed a complaint accusing the police of torturing his brother to get a false confession. The police then investigated the complaint and filed the case against the eight personnel.
