Health of father of rape and murder victim Nirmala Panta of Bhimdutta municipality, who lost mental balance while staging indefinite sit-in in Kanchanpur demanding justice, has improved after treatment in Kathmandu.
Yagya Raj Panta was brought to Kathmandu and admitted at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) on Sunday. He is being treated at the coronary care unit (CCU) of the hospital, according to Nirmala's mother Durga Devi Panta.
She said the doctors have attributed his problems to lack of sleep, disturbance in eating schedule and stress. "He is feeling a little better after being brought here. He is not speaking much and is quiet."
He also has an injury in his leg. "He apparently had an injury in his leg after walking around aimlessly. A bone in one of his digits had fractured. It has been plastered now."
Yagya Raj, who had started indefinite sit-in at the District Administration Office 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 and brought to Kathmandu on an ambulance after Buddha Air refused to have him on board stating he was not fit to fly.
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.
