It’s been nearly two months since the brutal rape and mur­der of 13-year-old Nirmala Pant of Ultakham, Bhimdatta munici­pality in Kanchanpur district. But Nepal Police has thus far failed to get anywhere close to solving the crime, this despite the police claim to the contrary. “Our investigation has been rig­orous,” says investigation officer in the case Krishna Raj Ojha. “And yet we have been unable to uncover incriminating evidence.”

Bhimdatta locals suspect the police are dilly-dallying so that vital evidence can be tampered with, if that has not already happened.

After all, it has been established that police officials involved in initial investigation had tried to system­atically erase evidence from crime scene. Another established fact is that initial investigation was aimed more at finding a scapegoat than solving the crime.

After Nirmala’s body was dis­covered on July 26, Nepal Police had deployed a probe team from its Central Investigation Bureau, which looks into serious crimes. When this team completed its inves­tigation, in conjunction with local police, it paraded before the pub­lic 41-year-old Dilip Singh Bista, a mentally-challenged person, as the perpetrator of the crime.

But as soon as Bista was present­ed as the prime suspect, the locals erupted in protest. They could not believe a mentally-challenged per­son was capable of pulling off such a meticulously-orchestrated crime.

In the ensuing police firing one person was killed while doz­ens were injured. After this the government formed another investi­gation team under Hari Prasad Main­ali, a joint secretary at the Home Ministry. The Chief District Office of Kanchanpur as well as its head of police were recalled.

As the locals had been arguing all along, Dilip Singh Bista was prov­en innocent when his DNA sample didn’t match the sample collected from the deceased body. The other suspect, Chakradev Badu, was also exonerated on the same ground.

Now the police are reportedly in the process of testing the DNA of the suspended Superintendent of Police of Kanchanpur Dilliraj Bista, who was initially in charge of the investi­gation, as well as the DNA of his son Kiran Bista and one Ayush Bista.

Besides, yet another probe team under CIB’s senior superinten­dent Thakur Prasad Gyawali has been deployed. This is in addition to an expert group of criminolo­gists that has been constituted to look into this crime. Moreover, on Sept 18, a separate ‘ladies team’ under Superintendent of Police Durga Singh was sent to Kanchanpur for investigation.

Nirmala’s family suspects foul play as all these investigations have thus far born no fruit. “It’s been nearly two months and Nirmala’s killers are still at large,” says Laxmi Pant, Nirmala’s step-mother. “We have started doubting if we will ever get justice.” She says the officers who erased evidence must be taken into custody and investigated. “It is vital that we know why they destroyed crucial evidence,” she says.