Police Headquarters Office has sent a special investigation team of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CIB) to investigate the rape and murder case of Nirmala Pant, a 13-year-old girl from Kanchanpur.

A team of forensic and computer experts has been deployed under the leadership of Police Inspector Santosh Shrestha from CIB to assist in the investigation conducted by the District Police Office, Kanchanpur.

CIB spokesperson SP Bel Bahadur Pandey said that the team had been deployed to ‘back support’ and assist Kanchanpur police in technical investigation.

“The original investigation is being conducted by Kanchanpur police. We are only assisting in the technical investigation of the incident,” said SP Pandey.

The incident is being investigated under the leadership of Rabindranath Poudel, DSP of Kanchanpur, keeping local resident Dilip Singh Bista as the main suspect.

Bista was arrested one-and-half years ago and later released for lack of evidence to implicate him in the case. Three investigating officers have been changed ever since the incident.

After police paraded Bista as the perpetrator on August 21, Kanchanpur locals protested against the arrest stating that Dilip was mentally ill and could not have possibly committed such a heinous crime.

The investigation reached a turning point after the internal investigating team, led by then AIG Dhiru Basnyat of Nepal Police and Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Hari Mainali, said that Bista was not involved in this case.

However, later another investigating committee formed by the Police Headquarters in the leadership of DIG Suraj KC on February 2 denied the previous report and said Bista was involved in the incident.

Police spokesperson Kshetri said that evidence found during the earlier investigation will also be used to find the culprit.