Nepal Police on Sunday formed a nine-member committee to investigate police officials who misled the probe into the rape and murder of 13-year-old Nirmala Pant in Kanchanpur in July.

The committee led by Deputy Inspector General Dhiru Basnyat will look into the role of police officers who oversaw a widely criticised investigation process. Many of them have already been suspended.

Nirmala was found strangled to death after rape in a sugarcane field near her house in Bhimdutta Municipality, Kanchanpur, on July 27. Local residents have accused police of protecting the culprits. A probe committee formed by the government corroborated the charges in its preliminary report.

According to Central Police Spokesperson Senior Superintendent of Police Shailesh Thapa Kshetri, the new committee led by DIG Basnyat will take over the former committee led by SSP Uttam Subedi. “The committee is a team of experts with the authority to go through the call details of all officials.

It can conduct Polygraph [lie-detector] tests if necessary,” SSP Thapa told the Post.

Then Kanchanpur Police chief SP Dilli Raj Bista has already been suspended. He has been subjected to investigation for his suspicious role.

 The DNA samples of SP Bista, his son Kiran Bista, and Aayush Bista, and nephew of Bhimdutta Mayor Surendra Bista are being tested against the sample taken as the victim’s vaginal swab.

“The DNA report will take some time to be ready,” said SSP Thapa, adding that the investigating process will continue then.

The Home Ministry on Saturday suspended DSPs Gyan Bahadur Sethi and Angur GC, Inspectors Ekendra Khadka and Jagadish Bhatta and Assistant Sub-inspector Ram Singh Dhami, as suggested by the report of a five-member probe committee led by Director General of the Department of Prison Management Hari Prasad Mainali.

The government had formed the Mainali-led committee on August 23 to investigate the Crime Investigation Bureau team and the Kanchanpur Police since they had arrested and declared mentally challenged Dilip Singh Bista as the culprit despite his innocence.

The CIB team led by DSP GC had reached Kanchanpur four days after the incident.

Speaking to the Post, Basnyat said, “I have just received the letter. We will start the investigation from a new perspective following a discussion.” All the suspended officers have been called to the Police Headquarters at Naxal, Kathmandu, for further investigation.