Amidst mystery surrounding her whereabouts for the past one week, Armed Police Force (AFP) Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Ranjan Koirala on Sunday confessed to the police that he killed his wife Gita Dhakal.
DIG Koirala, however, refused to divulge the details as to how he killed and what did he do with the slain body till late Sunday evening, according to police officials investigating the murder.
Talking briefly to media persons, Superintendent of Police (SP) Rajendra Shrestha, chief of Metropolitan Police Range Office, Kathmandu, said preliminary investigation has revealed that Koirala was directly involved in the murder. “Koirala has confessed to killing his wife,” he said.
A joint team of Metropolitan Police Crime Division and Metropolitan Police Range Office, Hanumandhoka, arrested Koirala Sunday morning from Nagdhunga, Thankot following a tip-off from intelligence sources. Koirala was on his way back to Kathmandu from Palung.
Sources said locals at Tistung rounded up Koirala and handed him over to the police on suspicion as he was found roaming alone in the site where a human carcass was found 10 days ago.
“It is learnt that Koirala was briefly detained by the police at Tistung but was released later after Koirala said that he had to go to Hetauda for his personal work,” said a police official at Metropolitan Police Crime Division (MPCD), Hanumandkhoka.
A police source at the MPCD, Hanumandkhoka, claimed Koirala could have gone to Palung to check if there was any connection between the dead body found by the police and his missing wife.
Local police had found a human carcass at Palung on January 12 and sent it to TU Teaching Hospital, Kathmandu, for post-mortem after locals informed to the police about a partially-burnt dead body. However, police is yet to recover the head and legs of slain Dhakal.
Dhakal, 38, had gone missing from her residence, Budhanilakantha, since January 11, drawing concerns from her close family and relatives about her whereabouts.
Though detained Koirala has refused to divulge the details as to how the slain body was transported to Palung, preliminary investigation has substantiated that Koirala took the dead body to a place called Metrang in Palung, Makawanpur, in his private car shortly after the murder on January 11.
“He took the dead body to Metrang on the same day he murdered her and burnt her body,” a police official involved in the investigation said.
Married in 1994, the couple had been living separately for more than six years following a bitter relationship. Their elder son, 14 -year-old, was living with Koirala while the younger son, who is 10 years old, was living with Dhakal.
Source: Republica
