The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) found several flaws on the part of police while investigating into the rape and murder of 13-year-old Nirmala Panta in Kanchanpur district.

Police failed to uphold the standards expected of them while investigating the crime, the commission Spokesperson Mohna Ansari said at a press meet in Mahendranagar on Thursday.

“The commission discovered several flaws in the investigation process that was launched by Kancanpur police in the wake of the incident. One major oversight was mishandling and possible destruction of the evidences found at the crime scene,” she said.  

The NHRC has concluded that because the evidences were destroyed, the present team was having difficulty solving the case.      

“The mishandling of case has not only affected the investigation, but also deteriorated public trust on police,” Ansari said.

Several days after Nirmala’s body was discovered in a sugarcane field on July 27, Kanchanpur police had presented Dilip Singh Bista, a mentally ill man, as the main suspect in the crime. But Kanchanpur residents and the family of Nirmala have categorically denied Bista’s role in the case.   

The rights watchdog has urged the authorities concerned to investigate the case seriously and bring the real perpetrators to justice.