The probe committee formed under DIG Dhiru Basnet to investigate the rape and murder of 13-year-old Nirmala Panta on Monday recorded the statements of the suspended police officers.
Police sources informed that the statements of one SP and two DSPs were recorded on Monday.
The statements of SP Dilli Raj Bista, DSP Gyan Bahadur Shetty, DSP Angur GC, Inspector Jagadish Bhatta, Ekendra Khadka and Assistant Sub-inspector Ram Singh Dhami were recorded.
Meanwhile, the probe committee also summoned 16 others police officers involved in preliminary investigation of the incident to Kathmandu to investigate the case.
The District Government Attorney Office released Bista on Tuesday after DNA samples collected from Nirmala’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 Ek 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 Dilli Raj Bista was then suspended for mishandling the case while the CIB sent another team under SSP Thakur Gyawali for investigations.
The Home Ministry on Saturday suspended five including three of the CIB team that had went to Kanchanpur on July 30 to assist the local police in investigation.
Samples have already been 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.
The government on August 23 had also formed a five-member probe committee under Director General of the Department of Prison Management Hari Mainali. The committee submitted the preliminary report to Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa on Saturday.
The ministry suspended DSP of CIB Angur GC, DSP Gyan Bahadur Setty, inspectors Jagadish Bhatta and Ekendra Khadka, and Assistant Sub-inspector Ram Singh Dhami on the basis of that preliminary report.
