As those arrested could not be accommodated at the District Police Office detention room, police have had to put them up inside office space and at a nearby monastery. The detention room can accommodate only 10 people at a time.
Altogether 49 suspects are under investigation by police including 39 who are alleged to have killed seven Yarchagumba pickers from Gorkha district, and 10 others who committed other crimes.
Chief District Officer Ram Raj Subedi said, “The court has not given its verdict. We can send them off to prison only after the court sentences them.”
This is the first time so many people are being detained in Manang at one time.
The police also said that keeping so many people under custody at their office has hampered daily work there.
“We used to have ample space for holding people in custody as there weren´t so many arrests,” adds Subedi. “Not many crimes happen here, and we have don´t have a prison.”
Meanwhile, police have not been able to recover the bodies of five of the victims and they are believed to have been buried by the locals after murdering them. Police have recovered only the bodies of two youths who were thrown off a cliff.
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