Bishal Chaudhary, who was arrested from Mahendranagar on December 6 in connection with the rape and murder of Nirmala Pant, was handed over to his family on Saturday.

Metropolitan Police Circle Kathmandu handed over Bishal to child coordination centre on Friday. The centre brought Bishal to Mahendranagar on Saturday morning and handed him over to his family in the presence of human rights activists in the District Police Office (DPO) in Kanchanpur.

Police arrested Pradip Rawal in Kathmandu while Bishal was nabbed from Mahendranagar. Both residents of Bhimdutta Municipality-18 in Kanchanpur were kept in police custody in Kathmandu for the investigation of the gruesome murder. Pradip is still in the police custody.

It is learnt that police decided to release Bishal after his DNA test did not match with the vaginal swab of the victim. However, the police have not made public the DNA report yet.

Programme assistant of the centre Santosh Chand handed over Bishal to his father Bir Bahadur Chaudhary.

Bir Bahadur and his wife Sarmati reached the DPO to receive their son Bishal. On Wednesday, police asked Bir Bahadur to go to Kathmandu to receive his son. But he refused to go to the Capital, demanding that his son should be released from Mahendranagar.

“I have been saying that my son is innocent in this case. He was coerced to admit his involvement,” said Bir Bahadur, claiming that the investigation officers force-fed intoxicant to accept his involvement during the interrogation.

After his release, Bishal said the police tortured him and forced him to admit his involvement in the crime. “They (police) beat me on the first day of my arrest in Mahendranagar. They warned me not to speak anything about it and told me to say that I have committed the crime,” Bishal said before the media persons.

He also said that police had arrested him in the afternoon of July 26 when 13-year-old Nirmala had gone missing. She was found dead in the sugarcane field the next day.

The relatives and supporters of Bishal and Pradip had staged demonstrations demanding the release of the duo together after police contacted Bishal’s family to receive him.

Meanwhile, family of Nirmala continued their indefinite sit-in in front of the District Administration Office, demanding immediate arrest of the culprits and take action against the police officers who destroyed evidences during investigation.

 Likewise, Citizen Struggle Committee has been also continuing its third phase of protest programme to pressurize the government to bring the guilty to book.