Simara, August 19
Police have arrested two individuals, including a man who pretended to assist officers during the initial search, in connection with the rape and murder of a three-year-old girl in Jitpur Simara Sub-Metropolitan City-1, Bara.
The victim a resident of the Dashdhure squatter settlement and a playgroup student at local Saraswati Basic School, went missing on Sunday morning.
Her body was recovered on Tuesday evening, wrapped in clothes inside an abandoned house roughly 200 meters from her home, after local residents alerted authorities to a foul smell emanating from the building.
Police arrested Suman Thapa, a resident of Jitpur Simara-2, directly from the crime scene after a police tracker dog signaled his involvement.
Thapa, who works as a helper on a public Magic van running along the Birgunj–Pathlaiya route, has confessed to raping and murdering the child.
Police Inspector Prakash Thapa of the Area Police Office, Simara, confirmed that Thapa actively walked around the scene alongside investigators, calling for the perpetrator’s immediate arrest before being identified.
Authorities also detained Progress Chaudhary, the driver of the van (Na 1 Ja 7758) where Thapa worked, for further investigation. Because the driver’s house is situated near the victim’s residence, the young girl frequently visited the area.
Investigators stated that Thapa lured the child from the driver’s house on Sunday morning. In his statement to the police, Thapa disclosed that after raping the child until she lost consciousness, he hanged her with a rope, left the area to bathe, and returned later that afternoon to bundle the body in fabric.
The tragedy has left the victim’s family completely devastated, with her mother remaining in a state of semi-consciousness since Tuesday evening. Meanwhile, outrage has erupted across the local community.
On Wednesday afternoon, aggrieved locals demonstrated in front of the Area Police Office in Simara, demanding the maximum punishment for the offender. The protest led to a traffic blockade along the busy Birgunj–Pathlaiya highway section that lasted for over two hours.
