Nirmala Panta, a 13-year-old girl from Kanchanpur, Nepal, was found raped and murdered in a sugarcane field near her home on 27 July 2018, after she had gone missing the day before.
In the subsequent days and months, various justice campaigns and mass protests were organised throughout the country to put pressure on the government and the police.
[2] Panta's family attempted to file a missing person's complaint at the local police station but were instructed to return the next morning.
[2] On 27 July, Panta's dead body was found naked in a waterlogged sugarcane field about 500 metres (1,600 ft) from Bam's house in Nimbukheda, Ward 18 of Bhimdattanagar.
[citation needed] Kanchanpur Police and the CIB team named a 41-year-old local man, who had previously served a nine-year jail sentence for the murder of his brother-in-law, as the suspect.
[1] Locals, including Panta's family, launched violent protests alleging that he was innocent and maliciously framed by the police to protect the real culprits.
[4] Beginning on 23 August, Hari Prasad Mainali, Director General of Department of Prison Management, led a Nepalese government committee of to investigate the incident.
[6] The incident also resulted in the suspension of DSPs Gyan Bahadur Sethi and Angur GC, Inspectors Ekendra Khadka and Jagadish Bhatta, and Assistant Sub-inspector (ASI) Ram Singh Dhami, by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
[4] Per the spokesperson of Nepal Police, SSP Shailesh Thapa Kshetri, DNA samples from SP Bista, his son, and the nephew of the mayor of Bhimdatta had been taken, together with the vaginal swab of the victim, for further investigation,[7] but none of them matched.
Another technical committee to investigate DNA led by Jiwan Rijal also concluded that the said male component of sample taken from victim's body might be contaminated and may not be of the perpretator.
[14] In December 2018, following the advice of civil society, Nirmala Panta's mother Durga Devi filed an FIR against the eight police officials, accusing them of destroying evidence in the case.
[18] A single bench of Judge Rajendra Kumar Acharya ordered the authorities to release six police officials on various bail amounts.
[25] Following the verdict, Nirmala's mother Durga Devi spoke to media that she was happy to hear that the police officers were acquitted.
[6] In a meeting with the victim's parents and Sudurpashchim Province lawmakers, prime minister Oli gave assurances that justice would be delivered.