- Police recover Khyati´s head
- ´Khyati killed within 24 hours of abduction´
- Girl´s body found 17 days after her kidnapping
The arrested accused are Biren Shrestha (Pradhan), 42, of Naradevi in Kathmandu and Merina Shakya, 16, of Kathmandu. [break]
While Shrestha is a former science teacher of Adarsha Vidya Mandir (AVM) School, Manbhawan, Shakya is a student of the same school, currently awaiting the result of SLC examination.
Mugshots of Biren Shrestha (Pradhan) and Merina Shakya.
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Khyati murder accused into judicial custody
Shrestha resigned from the job on April 22, 2009, after serving the school for 14 years. Even though Shrestha claims to have born in Maitidevi, police have recovered his ration card and other identity cards of Darjeeling, India.
Preliminary investigation has shown that Shakya was involved in calling Khyati over the phone and picking her to Shrestha´s rented apartment at Khusibu.
The main accused, Biren, is found to have asked Shakya to bring Khyati to his apartment for an interview by saying that she had won Rs 20,000 in cash and free trip to Pokhara on behalf of a magazine.
Khyati had been appearing for Grade XII exam from Jubilant College and Research Center in Kalimati before she was kidnapped. He family had moved to Kathmandu for her education after she passed SLC with distinction from Sidhhartha Shishu Sadan in Biratnagar two years ago.
How was she kidnapped?
Everything was good with the family of Khyati until the ill-fated girl received a phone from an unidentified girl at about 8 am on June 5. The girl asked Khyati to come to Putalisadak to fill up a form and face an interview before collecting the prize she won.
Accordingly, her parents had asked a youth who also lived in the house to drop her to Putalisadak. Upon arrival at Share Market Complex Building at around 1 p.m., the girl who has now been identified as Merina Shakya received Khyati and took her in a taxi to Khusibu.
Purushottam Amatya, a kin of the victim´s family, said the family members first gave her a call at 2 p.m. as Khyati did not return home even after an hour. The girl over the phone had said that it would take no more than half hour to fill up the form. “She [Khyati] told that she was still filling up the form,” he said.
Smelling rat, the family members called Khyati at 2:30 pm, but there was no response. “We came to know that she was kidnapped when SMSs in Hindi language began coming from her mobile after 3 p.m., demanding Rs 1 million ransom,” he said.
Bargaining over ransom
The kidnapper then began communicating the family through SMSs on the cell phone of the youth who had dropped Khyati to Putalisadak.
The family members initially were indecisive on paying the ransom, but later decided to pay it for the safety of their only child. The kidnapper first asked the family to come with the ransom in Butwal, and then to Chitwan, Sunauli, Darjeeling and finally Kakarbhitta.
Radha, Khyati´s mother and her domestic help Ram, reached Kakarbhitta to hand over the ransom amount. Ram handed over the amount. Ram luckily managed to flee from the clutches of Shrestha as the latter tried to kidnap him, too, due to teh fear of being identified by Ram.
Khyati was killed the same evening or the next day
Even though the family paid the ransom, the kidnapper did not release Khyati. This only added worries to the victim´s family. Khyati´s mother had briefly seen Biren in a hotel where he had asked her to come to hand over the ransom. This substantiated her suspicion that Shrestha, her former landlord, could be behind the kidnapping and informed the police about it. Police finally arrested Shrestha from Sorhakhutte area on Saturday, 16 days after the kidnapping.
Preliminary investigation has suggested that Biren could have killed Khyati the same evening or the next day after her kidnap. Police officials say that Khyati could have died of excessive use of chloroform, which Biren used to silence her. “We are yet to arrive at a conclusion as to how she was killed,” said DIG Bharat Bahadur GC, chief of Metropolitan Police Commissioner´s Office, Ranipokhari. “We are yet to receive post-mortem report.”
Biren then dismembered Khyati´s body and dumped the pieces in difference places so as to make it hard for the police to track his crime. Biren admitted that he threw Khyati´s torso in a stream at Sainbu and limbs in Narayangadh, but he is yet to disclose the whereabouts of the head.
Close acquaintances
Khyati´s family had first lived in a flat in Biren´s house at Balaju. They had developed close relationship during the stay in Biren´s house. The family had shifted to Anamnagar after Shrestha sold his house a year ago.
Biren had come to the victim´s residence at Anamnagar some five days before the kidnapping. He had pulled out his only photo from an album there without the notice of the family.
Protest against the murder
Student and teachers of Khyati´s college staged a two-hour chakka jam in Kalimati area on Monday. Likewise, Higher Secondary School Association of Nepal announced to shut all higher secondary schools across the country on Tuesday to protest the killing.
Latest in the series
Khyati´s kidnapping and murder is the latest in the rising incidences of kidnappings in the capital city.
While businessman Mahesh Sharada was released after paying a heavy ransom a few days ago following his kidnap from his residence at Thapathali, another businessman kidnapped from Tinkune is still in captivity. There was a failed attempt of kidnapping a 10-year-old girl Monika Piya, a fourth grader in Saurdip School in Banasthali.
Police officials privately admit that a large number of kidnap cases go unreported partly because the victims do not want to take risk on the backdrop of the kidnappers´ threat to take the lives of the hostages.
koshraj@myrepublica.com
