Unrequited love ends in college girl’s murder

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, Mar. 18: After a one-week investigation, police have arrested a man who brutally murdered a college girl and buried her body in the Tarebhir forest of Gokarneshwar Municipality-3, Kathmandu. The man was suspected to be in a one-sided love with the deceased.

The Valley Crime Investigation Office on Sunday made public 21-year-old Rupendra Lama of Gokarneshwar Municipality-3, who was arrested on the charge of murdering 18-year-old Sushma Lama. 

On March 7, at around 4:30 in the afternoon, the police received a report that two hands of a person were seen at Tarebhir in the forest of Shivapuri National Park and the rest of the body was found buried.

Immediately after receiving the information, a team of the Police Circle Bouddha, District Police Range, Kathmandu and Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office reached the spot. The police unearthed the body on March 8. 

"During the exhumation of the body, two hands were tied with a belt and the neck was tightened with a college tie," said Chief and Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Somendra Singh Rathore of the Crime Investigation Office at a press conference organised on Sunday. 

It was not possible to recognise the body just by looking at the face, but the family identified the body from the key of the house found in the pocket of the deceased. The police made public the murder suspect on Sunday afternoon.

Sushma and Rupendra are residents of the same place. According to the police, they used to go together for household work like grazing goats and cutting grass. They used to be in touch through telephone and social media.

According to the police officers, Rupendra has been seeing Sushma as his girlfriend for the last eight months, but Sushma did not want a love relationship with Rupendra. 

The investigation revealed that Rupendra observed Sushma's activities for seven days. 

Rupendra told the police that he was waiting for the chance to go to Budhanilkantha Secondary School where Sushma was studying, but he did not succeed in the first attempt after other people saw him. But in his second attempt on the eighth day, he killed her and buried her body.

After the murder, Rupendra took the body down the road about 50 metres and buried her. According to the police, Rupendra might have done the work alone.

The police have also seized the spade used for burying the body and the bag used for carrying the spade. 

Police have claimed that Sushma's book and mobile phone were found in Rupendra's room, confirming his involvement in the crime.

Sushma had not returned home since she went to college on February 5. On February 6, their photo in a wedding dress was uploaded. The groom's face was covered with emojis of Facebook, while the caption reads, 'Sorry everyone, I'll be back in three days’.

Three days after she went missing, the family members registered the missing complaint at the Bouddha police circle. 

A day after submitting the complaint to the police, Sushma's sister Binda Tamang received a message from Sushma's mobile phone. 

The family was shocked when they got a message from Sushma’s mobile phone when they got to know about every step taken by the family. But after Rupendra's arrest, it was revealed that he had posted a picture of their fake marriage on Facebook and sent messages from her mobile phone to deceive the police. 

After Sushma's body was identified, the police started an investigation based on the photo posted on Facebook.

After that, the police interrogated more than 100 people and 20 of them were brought to the police office and questioned, according to the police. 

After searching the entire village, we managed to arrest Rupendra from his house. It became even easier after Sushma's copies and textbooks were recovered from his room," said SSP Rathore.

He informed that Rupendra, who was arrested, has been sent to the police circle Bouddha for further 

investigation and a charge sheet was filed against him.