By Gokarna Dayal, Baitadi, Feb. 11: A week has passed since 17-year-old Bhagrathi Bhatta of Dogdakedar Rural Municipality-7, Baitadi was found dead. All the police fraternity of the Sudurpaschim Province and Central Investigation Bureau has started the investigation into the murder. The police have said that special information relating to the crime was received which had narrowed down the investigation.

Our correspondent Gokarna Dayal talked to Chief of Sudurpaschim Province Police Deputy Inspector General Uttam Raj Subedi who has been handling the investigation command in the Bhagrathi murder case for the last six days. Excerpts:

A week has passed since the murder of Bagrathi Bhatta. However, the accused have not been arrested yet.  How much time will it take to identify the criminals?

The locals were protesting in Dogdakedar when I visited the field. After two days, we requested the locals to coordinate and help us in the investigation. Although we took the investigation forward in a swift manner, many locals chose to remain quiet about the incident. Now, we are investigating by coordinating in the community-level. The locals have started to open up now.

Currently, the locals are cooperating well with us. We have narrowed down the investigation. I think this is the first case where DIG himself is undergoing field investigation. We have received special information. The criminals will be booked soon.

A trained dog was also used in the investigation. The expert team of the police is on the field since last week. What is the reason behind the delay in identifying the criminals?

We cannot make the information gathered through investigation public now. For now, I can just say that we will be successful in the investigation soon. We have moved forward by utilising all of our resources from sealing the crime scene to examining the vaginal swab. We also used a trained sniffing dog which helped in finding the mobile phone. As it was raining on that day, we couldn’t do much.

When will the forensic report of Bhagrathi's vaginal swab be ready?

It will take 15 days to a month to receive the report. The postmortem report has revealed a lot of information on the basis of which, we are moving forward with the investigation.

We are close to identifying the criminals.

Has the local government and political parties cooperated with the Police?

Yes, everyone has been coordinating and cooperating with us. The victim's family has also been helping us as much as they can. The investigation is moving forward swiftly. There is no way for the criminals to escape.