Kathmandu: A Nepalese school teacher, who
also stayed in Darjeeling for a long time, has been jailed for
39 years for brutally murdering a teenage girl student and
cutting her body into pieces with the help of an accomplice.
The Kathmandu District Court (KDC) slapped the 39-year
sentence on Biren Shrestha and ordered confiscation of his
property.
He along with his accomplice Merina Shakya, also a
teenager, was convicted of kidnapping and murdering Khyati
Shrestha, a student of Jubilant College of Kalimtati,
Kahmandu, said Superintendent of Police Ramesh Kharel, who is
also the chief of Kathmandu Metropolitan Police Circle.
Shrestha also frequently visited Darjeeling and had
acquired a ration card issued by the local administration
there, though he holds Nepalese citizenship, the senior police
officer said.
The single judge bench of justice Balendra Rupakheti
issued the verdict convicting Shrestha and Shakya on three
separate charges in connection with Khyati`s murder.
The court sentenced Shrestha to 20-year life imprisonment
on the murder charge and handed down another 15-year
imprisonment for kidnapping Khyati on the pretext of providing
her with cash award from a magazine. He got another four years
for kidnapping a girl and for collusion in murder.
Shrestha`s accomplice Shakya was sentenced to 20-year
life imprisonment on the murder charge along with a 10-year
sentence on the kidnapping charge and another four years for
collusion in murder and kidnapping a girl.
Police had recovered Khyati`s body parts from a stream at
Sainbu village of Lalitpur district near Kathmandu 17 days
after her abduction on June 21, 2009. The teenage girl was the
only child of Gopal Shrestha, who was living at Ghattekulo in
a rented apartment.
She had been invited by Shakya to collect a prize by her
private science teacher Biren Shrestha.
The kidnappers had asked the family for ransom through an
SMS for her release, though she was murdered shortly after her
abduction.
PTI
